6 Habits to Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet - by Ali Abdaal
In this insightful video, Ali Abdaal shares six powerful productivity habits that can help you make meaningful progress on your goals and craft a truly remarkable year. Let's dive into each one and explore how they might apply to your own life and aspirations.
1. Embrace Quarterly "Quests" Over Annual Goals
The first habit is to set quarterly "quests" instead of annual goals. The idea behind this is that 90 days is a more manageable timeframe to set and achieve meaningful objectives.
- Do you currently set annual goals? How has that worked for you?
- What would be the potential benefits and challenges of shifting to a quarterly goal-setting cadence?
2. Implement a Weekly Review/Reset
The second habit is to conduct a weekly review or reset. This involves taking 15-20 minutes each week to reflect on the previous week, celebrate wins, check in on your goals, and set priorities for the upcoming week. This practice provides regular course-correction and intention-setting.
- How often do you currently reflect on your progress and set new intentions?
- What impact could implementing a simple weekly review have on your productivity and sense of direction?
3. Establish a Morning Journaling Practice
The third habit is to engage in a brief morning journaling practice, which Ali calls the "Morning Manifesto." This involves reconnecting with your weekly priorities and defining the day's most important task. This practice helps combat the tendency to be reactive and keeps you oriented towards what matters most.
- What are your thoughts on this idea?
- Would a short morning intention-setting practice be feasible and valuable to integrate into your daily routine?
4. Track Your Daily Focused Work Time
The fourth habit is to track your daily focused work time on projects that matter to you, in order to build awareness and momentum. Ali refers to this as the "Focus Log." Simply writing down how many focused minutes you spend can profoundly impact your productivity.
- Do you currently measure your focused work in any way?
- How could implementing some kind of simple tracking system impact your ability to make meaningful progress on your goals?
5. Schedule Regular Social Commitments
The fifth habit is to put regular social events and commitments on your calendar as "standing orders," rather than scheduling everything ad hoc. This approach reduces back-and-forth coordination overhead and ensures consistent quality time with important relationships.
- What are your thoughts on this approach to simplifying socializing?
- Do you have any regular social commitments currently built into your schedule?
6. Leverage "Multimodality Multitasking"
The sixth and final habit is to leverage what Ali calls "multimodality multitasking." This involves pairing tasks that use different modes of thinking, such as listening to relevant audiobooks or podcasts while doing chores. The key is to pair two different types of tasks, not to try to do similar tasks simultaneously. This can be especially valuable if you're trying to build a side business outside of a day job.
- What are your thoughts on this concept?
- Do you currently leverage any multi-modal pairings to make better use of your time?
- What other multi-task combinations could potentially work well for your goals and lifestyle?
By exploring and selectively incorporating these six habits, you can supercharge your productivity and make meaningful strides towards crafting your best year ever. Reflect on which ones resonate most with you and consider how you might integrate them into your own context. Small changes, implemented consistently, can yield remarkable results over time.