Brief Summary
This video features Ali Abdaal sharing his insights on efficient YouTube content creation, particularly for those balancing it with a full-time job or other commitments. Key points include prioritising title, thumbnail, and hook, outsourcing video editing to free up time, and using bullet points instead of full scripts to streamline the content creation process. Abdaal emphasises the importance of valuing your time and focusing on high-impact activities to maximise productivity and consistency on YouTube.
- Prioritise title, thumbnail and hook before creating video.
- Outsource video editing.
- Use bullet points instead of full scripts.
Ali Abdaal reflects on his early days of YouTube while working as a full-time medical student and then as a doctor. He acknowledges the challenge of finding time for content creation amidst a demanding work schedule, which involved long commutes and work hours. Despite these challenges, he has become known as a productivity expert and aims to share strategies for making educational content creation feel more effortless.
Sean Cannell introduces Ali Abdaal, who recently spoke at the Think Media YouTube Summit, sharing his five-step video creation process. This process is designed to save time, increase productivity, and ultimately help creators get more views. The framework covers everything from initial idea generation to publishing and analysing video performance.
Abdaal stresses that the title, thumbnail, and hook (the first 30 seconds of the video) should be prioritised even before writing the video content. He advises creators to have a clear idea of these elements in advance. This approach contrasts with his earlier method of creating the video first and then figuring out the title and thumbnail.
Abdaal shares his experience of outsourcing video editing after initially spending 10 hours a week on it. He strongly recommends outsourcing editing to anyone struggling with consistency or time management, unless they genuinely enjoy the process. Outsourcing frees up a significant amount of time that can be used for higher-value activities.
Abdaal discusses the importance of valuing your time and considering the monetary value of the tasks you undertake. Even when a YouTube channel isn't generating significant income, the time saved by outsourcing tasks like video editing can be used for more valuable activities such as generating new ideas, filming content, or spending time with family. He highlights that he was earning $15 an hour as a doctor and could find editors for $10 an hour, creating an arbitrage on his time.
Abdaal suggests that scripting videos word for word can be a significant time drain, especially for educational YouTubers. He recommends talking through bullet points instead, which feels more natural, boosts confidence on camera, and saves time. This approach works best when you're knowledgeable and passionate about the topic.
Abdaal shares his personal experience of how switching to bullet points made it easier to maintain consistency on YouTube while working full-time. He found that scripting videos could take up to 12 hours and result in an unnatural delivery when reading from a teleprompter. Removing the need to script word for word and focusing on bullet points made a significant difference in his content creation process.
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Transcript
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0:00 for the first 3 years of my YouTube channel I was a full-time medical student and then working full-time as a doctor here in the UK you got to like wake up at 6:30 got to drive an hour to work got to be at work from like 8:00 till 5:30 p.m. and hope that you don't have to stay behind late you drive an hour back home from work it takes a bit longer because there rush hour when everyone's trying to get home you get home you cook and then by that time it's time to sleep again and and then just repeat the process and go to work the next day where the hell do you find the time to make the YouTube videos even now I still struggle to find the time for YouTube videos because now I'm building a business and blah blah blah and have a whole team of like 20 people and all that jazz having said that somehow I've become known as a productivity expert and so I want to share some of the things that have really helped in the world of creating educational content that makes it feel a little bit more effortless you got to just press record
0:45 hey what's up Sean canel here with think media in this video we're going to be learning from Ali abdal he recently spoke at our think media YouTube Summit and if you actually want to get on the weight list for the next one we'll put a link to that in the description down below but in this video he shares his five Step video creation process all the way from ideation to publishing the video and this is going to help you not only save time and be more productive but'll ultimately help you get more views as well so let's cut right into the video essentially what I realized after talking to a business coach what we did was we got out a big piece of paper and we drew out the stages of video production and the first stage is idea generation the next stage you know at the time I was making the video first and then doing the title and thumbnail but what I what I appreciate now is that
1:31 title thumbnail and even hook tth comes first if there is only one thing you take away from this talk do not even think about what your video is going to be don't even think about writing the video unless you know what the title thumbnail and hook is going to be you don't have to create the thumbnail in canva or photoshop and stuff but like you should have a very good idea of what's the title what is the thumbnail and what's the hook and by hook I mean the first 30 seconds all of that stuff should be done way in a advance of actually trying to write that video if so you start with the idea this is the concept of the video you got title thumbnail hook then it comes down to writing the video then it comes down to film then it comes down to edit and then sort of like publish and analytics and stuff that sort of
2:17 thing and at the time he asked me you know how much time are you spending at each level of the process and I was spending like 10 hours a week on editing which was just really dumb and he encouraged me to Outsource my video editing and so after 2 years of doing all my video editing myself I decided to Outsource my video editing the number one tip unfortunately that I would recommend for anyone who is struggling with consistency or time management is you cannot be editing your own videos unless you really really really love it and if you really really really love it then fine okay is it the highest value thing you could be doing etc etc but we're thinking like a business right editing is for most channels a thing that could be done by other people editing does not is not necessarily the thing that you have to do yourself so
3:03 you automatically free up a ridiculously large amount of time by just Outsourcing your video editing um then at this point people like well I'm not making enough money and etc etc and yeah I I I would really be thinking what is the dollar value of your time what is the dollar value of your time maybe your YouTube channel isn't making money but how much do you value your time would you rather edit videos for 8 hours or would you rather spend those 8 hours coming up with new ideas or coming up with filming new things or spending time with your family or hanging out with your kids all of that stuff what I realized is that even when my YouTube channel wasn't making money I should have really outsourced my editing because yeah I was working as a doctor I was earning like $15 an hour so my time is worth at least $15 an hour right and I can find an editor for $10 an hour
3:49 great I've now got Arbitrage on my time I have now freed up this enormous bottleneck which is the fact that it takes me 10 hours a week to do my editing so the first recommendation I would give is please please please Outsource your video editing people always have issues with this I have a whole session in my course where we teach people how to Outsource their video editing people always like oh I don't have the money no one can edit like me but like my style is so unique and every time for the last four years I've been saying to every student in my YouTuber Academy that like guys come on you just need to Outsource your editing here's how you do it and every single person I've ever met who's actually outsourced the editing has come back and said to me wow I'm so glad you pushed me to Outsource my editing because now I have all this free time and now I'm not stressed anymore etc etc so if there is one thing you take away from this
4:34 talk please let it be that if you are currently doing a video editing I would implore you do whatever you can to Outsource that get it off your plate because usually for most people editing is not the fun part of making YouTube videos if it is it's a different story but you're kind of in the minority there so we realized we should Outsource my video editing um the other thing I've realized over time is that you know what's the thing that takes the next amount of time idea generation is kind of quick making a title and a thumbnail like you just take a lot of photos you have a thumbnail photo library you have you have a house style for thumbnails it's not that bad the writing process has the potential to take a very large amount of time what I realized is that scripting videos is a total waste of time if you are a educational YouTuber
5:23 and you are struggling to produce videos consistently I would very much recommend not scripting your videos and instead just talking through bullet points scripting videos word for word my goodness that takes a huge amount of time ideally when it comes to this thing around finding your Niche ideally the thing you're making videos about is something you feel sufficiently something that you feel you're enough of an expert in that you don't need to script things word for word cuz usually talking through bullet points you're more confident on camera you're more comfortable doing it and it takes a lot less time than scripting videos word for word so what I realized for myself is that if I wanted to be consistent with making YouTube videos
6:08 especially when I had a day job is that I could not script them word for word I tried but it would take me like 12 hours to script a video and then I'd be trying to read it off a teleprompter and then it would be a total show and I'll be like Oh I'm stumbling over my words and so if I just remove that requirement to script things word for word and I just thought about bullet points then that made all the difference if you got value from that session with all all hit the like button and you can check out Ali's Channel linked up in the description down below also highly recommend his book Feelgood productivity you can grab it on audiobook or physical that'll be in the description as well and if you want to check out Gary vaynerchuk session from our YouTube Summit click or tap the screen to watch that next subscribe if you're not subscribed and I'll catch you in the next one
