Ali Abdaal's Daily Routine
Protect your mornings and share your meals. Ali Abdaal's daily routine puts 4 hours of deep work before a 2-hour lunch.
By AgendoloVerifiedUpdated
Overview
Ali Abdaal is an ex-doctor turned YouTuber, podcaster, entrepreneur and author of a New York Times bestselling book about doing more of what matters. His daily routine is a design rather than a diary. In his LifeNotes newsletter in 2023 he sketched his ideal Tuesday, borrowing the idea that a life is mostly ordinary Tuesdays, so an amazing Tuesday probably means an amazing life.
The morning opens slowly, with a routine and a journal to take stock of the day. Then come 4 hours of deep work, reading, learning and writing, before a long lunch, ideally with other people. Afternoons hold the meetings and filming, though he would rather keep them unscheduled so the reading and writing can carry on. After the gym or a martial arts class he has people over for dinner at 7:00 PM, then winds down with a book and sleeps by 11:00 PM.
It suits people who set their own hours, such as freelancers, creators, founders and writers, and still find their days filling up with other people's priorities. It also suits anyone whose best thinking happens before lunch and whose social life keeps losing out to work.
You get your sharpest hours for the work that matters, 2 meals with company and a steady 8 hours of sleep. If a whole morning is out of reach, guard 2 hours instead and keep one shared meal a week. Using the Tuesday for every day, the weekend and the type of exercise are our estimates.
Sources
Who's it for
At a glance
- 8 hr sleep per night
- 63 hr work per week
- 2 meals per day
- 8 hr eating window
- 7 hr learning per week
- 7 hr movement per week
Schedule
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