How to Make Time for Everything and Then Actually Do It - Ali Abdaal

Summary

This video, presented by Ali Abdaal, addresses the common question of how to make time for everything, utilizing a "168 hours" spreadsheet to illustrate time allocation within a week.

Part 1: Analysis of Average American Time Use

The first part of the video uses data from sources like the American Time Use Survey, Nielsen data, and research conducted by AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude) to estimate how the average American spends their 168 hours per week.

• Sleep: On average, Americans sleep approximately 8.7 hours per night, which equates to 56 hours per week. Including 30 minutes for winding down before sleep, the total time dedicated to sleep-related activities is 59.5 hours per week (about 35% of life).
• Work: An average 8-hour workday, five days a week, combined with a 30-minute lunch break, a 30-minute commute each way, 45 minutes for getting ready, and 15 minutes for changing after work, totals 52.5 hours per week (about 31.3% of life).
• Food: Eating and preparing meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) consume an average of 12 hours per week. Grocery shopping adds another 60 minutes weekly.
• Chores: Tasks such as cleaning, laundry, and other miscellaneous chores account for roughly 6.5 hours per week, though this is noted as potentially an underestimate and varies greatly, especially with children.
• Fitness: The average American allocates about 2.5 hours per week to fitness and exercise.
• Entertainment: This category is substantial, with the average American spending 19 hours a week watching TV shows, movies, and streaming content (including YouTube). An additional 3.5 hours per week are spent on social media apps, though for 18-24 year olds, this jumps to 5.1 hours *per day*. Other entertainment like gaming (1 hour) and general entertainment (6 hours) further contribute to this total, reaching 29.5 hours per week.
• Relationships: Time for quality family and partner interactions (3 hours) and general socialising (1 hour) are also factored in.

Conclusion on Average Use: Even without considering childcare, these basic activities for the average American already consume all 168 hours of the week, leaving no time for additional pursuits like starting a business, side hustles, or engaging in hobbies. The speaker highlights that making time for "everything" is physically challenging due to the finite number of hours. Including childcare further exacerbates this, with just 2 hours a day of active childcare, plus 4 hours a week for related administration and miscellaneous tasks, adding 18 hours per week and resulting in a deficit of available time. If the average person engaged in typical entertainment habits while also having childcare responsibilities, they would quickly find themselves with negative free time.

Part 2: Speaker's Personal Strategies and Sacrifices

Ali Abdaal realised in 2012, during his first year of medical school at Cambridge University, that he did not have enough hours to pursue all his desired activities (studies, sleep, socialising, sports, business, relationships, entertainment). He identified three core strategies for making time:

1. Squeeze extra efficiency from necessary tasks.
2. Strategically sacrifice certain activities to make time for others.
3. Double-dip on existing hours.

Abdaal then illustrates how he applied these strategies around 2018, when he was working full-time as a doctor and simultaneously growing his YouTube channel and business.

• Sleep: He maintained around 8 hours of sleep per night, focusing on optimising winding-down time.
• Food: A significant sacrifice was his active decision not to cook. He primarily relied on ready meals, microwave meals, or takeaways, spending only 2.7 hours per week on cooking and eating food, compared to an average of 10-15 hours for most people. This decision freed up approximately 10 hours per week for his business and YouTube channel. He acknowledges potential negative health impacts of this choice, noting that he is now focusing on healthier eating to reverse some of the damage.
• Chores: He saved considerable time by rarely doing groceries (as he ate takeaways). He cleaned his house for about 10 minutes once a week and outsourced cleaning every other week for 2 hours, resulting in only about 1.4 hours per week on chores, significantly less than the average US household's 15 hours.
• Entertainment: This was a major area of strategic sacrifice. Since 2012, he made a rule not to watch TV or movies unless with friends (e.g., Game of Thrones), effectively spending zero time on solo viewing. He limited social media to about an hour a day (7 hours a week) and played no video games. This drastically reduced his entertainment consumption compared to the average American's 19 hours of TV and 10-30 hours of social media.
• Free Time Result: These sacrifices allowed him to have approximately 31.4 hours of free time per week, which he dedicated to growing his YouTube channel and business. He contrasts this with the average American, who might have negative free time if they adhere to typical entertainment habits.
• Double-Dipping: He utilised his commute to work (60 minutes each way) to listen to audiobooks or podcasts, often at 2-3x speed, focusing on business, YouTube growth, or fantasy fiction. His lunch breaks were also used to plan YouTube videos if he wasn't socialising.

Conclusion on Sacrifices: Abdaal stresses that making time is not about being inherently "productive" but about making conscious choices and sacrifices. While he doesn't recommend sacrificing healthy eating, he highlights that significantly reducing time spent on TV and social media can free up considerable hours for other pursuits. He emphasises that with childcare commitments, it becomes even more challenging to find time for additional goals, noting that many productivity videos overlook this.

Key Message and Call to Action

The speaker encourages viewers to download his free 168-hour spreadsheet to track their current time allocation and envision an ideal week, which can help identify areas for adjustments or sacrifices. He concludes by reiterating that if you are struggling to make time for everything, it is because there are simply not enough hours in the week for a "balanced life" *plus* additional goals without sacrificing something. The choice of what to sacrifice (e.g., entertainment, work, health, relationships, sleep) is personal. He explicitly states that he is not telling viewers what to do, but rather showing what worked for him.

168 Hours Spreadsheet

Rethinking Mental Health: What The Science Actually Says About Depression, The Side Effects of Antidepressants & Finding Balance - Dr Rangan Chatterjee with Prof Joanna Moncrieff

Did you know that nearly one in five UK adults – and almost one in four women – are currently taking antidepressants? Yet according to my guest this week, the fundamental theory behind these prescriptions may be built on remarkably shaky ground.

Joanna Moncrieff is Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London, a consultant psychiatrist for the NHS, and the author of the groundbreaking book, Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth.

In our thought-provoking conversation, Joanna explains how the widely accepted belief that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance or serotonin deficiency has little scientific evidence to support it. This theory, which became popularised in the 1990s through pharmaceutical industry marketing, has fundamentally changed how we view our emotions and mental health.

Joanna and I discuss:

• Why the difference between antidepressants and placebos in clinical trials is just two points on a 54-point depression scale – a minimal difference that may not be clinically significant
• How the diagnosis of depression itself is subjective and based on criteria that Joanna describes as “completely made up”, rather than objective biological markers
• The concerning side effects of SSRIs that are often underreported – including emotional numbness, sexual dysfunction that can persist even after stopping medication, and in some cases, an increase in suicidal thoughts
• How pharmaceutical marketing campaigns in the 1990s fundamentally changed our cultural understanding of depression from a natural human response to life circumstances to a “chemical imbalance” requiring medication
• Why withdrawal from antidepressants can be extremely challenging, particularly at lower doses, and why reducing medication requires careful, gradual reduction that many doctors aren’t trained to manage
• Whether visiting your GP should be your first option when experiencing a low mood, and how alternatives like exercise, mindfulness and addressing underlying life issues might be more effective

Throughout the episode, Joanna encourages us to view our emotional responses as meaningful signals rather than medical disorders that need chemical correction. She believes we’ve been disempowering people by teaching them that negative emotions represent a deficiency rather than a natural human experience that can guide us toward necessary life changes.

This conversation isn’t about telling anyone what to do with their current medication, but providing information to make truly informed decisions. If you or someone you know has ever taken antidepressants or been diagnosed with depression, this episode offers a perspective that could fundamentally change how you view mental health treatment in the future.

Jordan Peterson’s Worst Debate - What Went Wrong? - Charisma on Command

Jordan Peterson has delivered some of the internet’s most iconic debate moments. But his Surrounded video doesn’t quite reach that same level.

Many will dissect the substance of the debate—the semantic haze, the definitions, the back-and-forth. That’s not where I want to focus.

What matters most in a debate, if your goal is to actually change someone’s mind, isn’t clever semantics, gotcha moments, or even airtight logic. It’s the emotional connection you build through rapport and charisma. That human link is what opens the door to real persuasion.

How To Fix Your Brain’s Addiction To Anxiety & Worry - Modern Wisdom with Dr Russell Kennedy

Dr. Russell Kennedy is a neuroscientist specialising in anxiety treatment, a physician, and an author.

Why is anxiety so common now? It once helped us survive, like when lions chased us. But today, we feel it even when there's no real threat. So what's going on? What does science say about this ancient emotion, and how can we manage it in the modern world?

Expect to learn why anxiety is so common nowadays, the neuroscience of why we worry, the big differences between anxiety and worry, the biggest triggers of anxiety and how to manage them better, how to undo-chronic anxiety and how anxiety shows up differently for men and women, if it is it a blessing or a curse to feel things deeply, where people pleasing come from neurologically and much more…

00:00:00 Why Is Anxiety So Common
00:05:41 Where Fear of Uncertainty Comes From
00:10:45 How Uncertainty Anxiety Can Manifest Itself
00:14:43 The Default Mode Network
00:17:00 How Worry Affects Anxiety
00:19:19 Why Does Rumination Feel Good?
00:24:15 Can Anxiety Be Mislabeled?
00:26:08 A Meditation to Locate & Reduce Anxiety
00:32:48 The Goggins Cortex
00:33:43 How to Deal with Unwanted Anxiousness
00:37:01 We are Addicted to Uncertainty
00:39:56 Talk Therapy & ACT Therapy
00:47:33 How Effective is Medication?
00:50:07 Can We Undo Chronic Anxiety?
00:53:57 Is it Necessary to Heal Our Past?
00:55:47 How Does Anxiety Show Up Differently for Men & Women?
00:58:50 Is Feeling Deeply a Blessing or a Curse?
01:01:47 When the Traditional Approach Doesn't Work
01:04:50 S.H.O.U.L.D.
01:06:13 Dr. Russell's Courses & Information Materials

Chris Williamson Explains Why Finding Love Feels Harder Than Ever - The Diary of a CEO with Chris Williamson

In todays moments episode, Chris Williamson dives into why real relationships seem harder to find in today’s world - and what you can do about it. With the challenges of modern dating, and the rise of disconnection, Chris offers a hopeful perspective on how to navigate these hurdles and create deeper, more meaningful connections in your life.