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10 cheap purchases that improved my life - YouTube
Channel: Ali Abdaal
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hey friends welcome back to the channel
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in this video we're going to go over 10
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cheap purchases that have improved my
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quality of life
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let's get into it coming in at number 10
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on the list we have a physical alarm
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clock
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and this is really cool because before i
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had one of these i used to use my phone
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as an alarm clock and i'd have the phone
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on my bedside table but inevitably it
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would mean that i would spend hours and
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hours scrolling through twitter browsing
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instagram and
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attempting to reply to messages on hinge
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at night when i should have been
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sleeping but ever since i got one of
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these i now have the physical alarm
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clock on my bedside table which means i
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can have the phone across the room away
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from my bed or even
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in the kitchen on charge if i really
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need to get up one morning and so for a
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relatively cheap investment of like
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between
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5 and 20 quid depending on how fancy the
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alarm clock is you can massively improve
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your quality of sleep if you get one of
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these coming in at number nine we have
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the trusty electric toothbrush
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now the only thing that you need to have
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in an electric toothbrush if you have
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one
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is it needs to have a 30 second timer so
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the cool thing about this one is that
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you go
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and then every 30 seconds it does like a
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z
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and it so it tells you when 30 seconds
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are up and it tells you when two minutes
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are up
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so you can spend 30 seconds on each
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quadrant of the mouth
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and then you know when you've been
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brushing for two minutes i've been using
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this for the past year now
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and i noticed a massive improvement in
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like the whiteness of my smile and my
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brother even commented on it when we
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were recording our podcast he was like
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oh your teeth look really white
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and i said it's because i've been using
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one of these time toothbrushes and he
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bought one immediately
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so you can get one of these for like 20
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quid 30 quid just find the one that has
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the 30 second timer on it it's
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absolutely fantastic coming in at number
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eight we have the trusty ukulele now i
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started learning the ukulele when i was
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in my second year of medical school
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and really it was the first instrument
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that i learned and i learned by
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following youtube tutorials
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i just really liked the idea of playing
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the guitar but the ukulele seemed was it
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was a lot cheaper because i got it for
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like 15 quid off amazon
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it was a lot cheaper and it seems a lot
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easier to get started with the ukulele
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and within like 10 minutes you can learn
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to play the basic chords and then if you
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practice around five or ten minutes a
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day for about a week or two you get to a
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point where you can like play songs on
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the ukulele and you can like sing along
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and it's really fun
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and the ukulele was really my gateway
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drug into the world of music
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super easy to learn would highly
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recommend i'll link to a cheap version
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on amazon in the video description you
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can basically get the cheapest one learn
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how to play that and then if you want
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you can upgrade to a slightly fancier
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one
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but yeah 15 pounds for my basic first
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ukulele
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it was pretty awesome and it got me into
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the world of music at number six on the
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list we have my absolute favorite
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writing pad of all time
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this is the pucker pad like i've tried
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zillions and zillions of like writing a4
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writing pads over the years and i always
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keep coming back to the pucker pad
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because it's like
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the quality of the paper and the quality
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of the vibes
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and the feel and the look and the
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general
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spiritual essence that it puts out it's
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just like second to none i quite like
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the basic pocket pad originals i filled
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up many of these in med school
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now i'm using the pucker pad project
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version which has the same quality of
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paper but it's got these like dividers
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uh because now i've got more money i can
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afford like slightly better stationary
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and so this is how i've been kind of
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planning uh the book that i'm writing
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and it's just really nice having like an
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a4 pad sitting on my desk at all times
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and i've got pens right sort of within
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within arm's reach and so if i ever need
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to write anything down
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this there's just something nice about
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being able to scribble it on an a4
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pucker pad
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rather than have to write it in an app
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so highly recommend these these are
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fantastic the best pads i've ever used
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in my life at number six on the list we
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have a trilogy of books by austin cleon
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all of these are fantastic they're
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really good they're very inspirational
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and i have them
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i have like physical copies of all three
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on my desk at all times as part of my
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desk setup in particular as you guys
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know show your work was the book that
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most changed my life
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uh because it encouraged me to write
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online a video over there if you want to
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check that out
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still like an artist is all about
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stealing ideas like an artist and it
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talks about the general idea that
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nothing is original we don't need to
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worry about having original ideas
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we can still like artists and get ideas
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from different sources and there's a
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nice quote at the start on the nothing
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is original chapter that says
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the writer jonathan lethem has said that
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when people call something original
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nine times out of ten they just don't
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know the references or the original
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sources involved
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so this is really cool and then his
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third book keep going is all about how
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to stay creative through the good times
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and the bad
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and so it's like a really nice like it's
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very cheap by buying all these books it
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takes like 20 minutes to read each of
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them and i've sort of these are very
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well
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well thumbed through so anytime i'm
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having a bit of a creative rut or i'm in
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a bit of a slump
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i just pick up one of them they always
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live on my desk and i just grab one i
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open it to a random page and i always
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find inspiration so thank you austin for
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that links to all those books down in
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the video description
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at number five we have the water bottle
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i have a water bottle
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on my desk now at all times just having
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it on my desk and having it be
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a slightly nice one that kind of goes
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with the white vibe of the rest of my
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desk
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it's just been amazing because now i
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drink so much more water and drinking
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water
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as they say is good for you and i've
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noticed that on days where i drink more
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water
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i feel less fat i feel less bloated and
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my skin feels like it's glowing
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not sure how much of that is placebo but
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yeah we were taught in medical school
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that you should drink two liters of
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water a day thanks to having a water
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bottle on my desk this is now what i do
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at number four we have the trusty deck
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of cards i basically had a deck of cards
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on my desk
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close to hand for the last almost 10
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years of my life
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i got into doing close-up magic in 2011
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after watching a chap called michael
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vincent on pen and telefool us and
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initially close-up magic started off as
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a way of trying to
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increase my sexual market value amongst
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my peers at school but then when i got
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to university and reinvented myself as
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not a massive nerd i decided to continue
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with my close-up magic
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and i used to perform at balls and
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parties and events around
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the university and i used to get paid
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for it and that was pretty good because
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back in the day i wasn't making that
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much money as i now do on this youtube
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channel so
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you know being paid to walk around
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parties dressed up in a tuxedo and going
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up to groups of people being like hey
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you want to see a magic trick
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um that was that was my jam back in the
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day
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and even now like i always have a deck
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of cards on me because if i ever need
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something to do with my hands
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then i just do some flourishes with a
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deck of cards because otherwise the
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devil makes work for idle hands coming
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in at number three we have the amazon
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kindle
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you can get these quite cheap it's
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probably the most expensive item on the
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list but like the cheapest amazon kindle
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is sometimes like 50 or 60 dollars you
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can get it super cheap
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honestly the kindle is like one of the
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physical items that's like most impacted
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my life because just getting a kindle
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lets you just gives you the ability to
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read infinitely more books than you
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would otherwise
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these days anytime i get a book
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recommendation i just buy it on kindle
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immediately and i can start reading it
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there and then
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it's just absolutely amazing i've been
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using a kindle basically every day since
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2008
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or whenever the first kindle came out
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and yeah it's just so good i cannot
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recommend it hardly enough i have a
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video over there that talks more about
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why
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everyone should get an amazon kindle
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this one is the kindle oasis it's a
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little bit fancy you probably don't need
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the oasis you could just go for the
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kindle paperwhite or to be honest you
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could just go for the bog standard
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kindle depending on how much
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money you want to save and i read this
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every night before bed it's what i do
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when i get into bed i take my mouth shut
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after doing my skincare routine and then
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i just read on the kindle until i fall
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asleep
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so huge huge huge impact on my quality
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of life with a fairly cheap fairly small
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device moving on to number two we have
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this
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this is a door stop i've probably got
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the most bang for my buck
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out of this purchase than anything else
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in my life because when i was at
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university i always used to have a
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doorstop and it would always prop my
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door open
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these days probably not so relevant if
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you're you know in covet times in the
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pandemic
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but once the world stops ending highly
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recommend a doorstop for absolutely
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everyone because if you're at university
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or if you have an office
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or if you're at home whatever mostly at
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university propping your door open is
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like the best thing ever
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because you want to cultivate this
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persona
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where your friends who walk or walking
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by feel that it's okay to interrupt you
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while you're working because like if i
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look back on my university experience
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i don't at all remember those nights
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where i was like oh i've got to work a
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little bit harder to get like an extra 1
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on this essay but because i was the sort
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of person who people would feel
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comfortable interrupting in the middle
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of work
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like those interruptions and those like
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welcome distractions have turned into
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friendships that are still lasting today
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and so if you're the sort of person who
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props the door open with a doorstop at
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university or wherever you are
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then it's just generally good vibes all
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around and finally at the top of this
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list one purchase that has immeasurably
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improved my quality of life
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is a subscription to skillshare who are
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very kindly sponsoring this video if you
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guys haven't heard by now skillshare is
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an incredible online platform with
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thousands of online classes from all
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sorts of topics
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if you're one of the first 1 000 people
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to hit the link in the video description
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you're going to get 40 off the
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skillshare annual premium subscription
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and that means you can watch the eight
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different online classes that i've got
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on skillshare
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two of them are about studying for exams
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two of them around productivity
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one of them is around how to be happier
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with lessons from stoicism and i've got
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another one which is themed around
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productivity for creators which is
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coming out in a few weeks time
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after your free trial is up the annual
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subscription to skillshare is less than
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10
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a month that is an absolute no-brainer
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for all of the value that you get
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plus you should watch all of my classes
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on skillshare because i think they're
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pretty good and they've had pretty solid
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reviews so if that sums up your stream
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and you want to be more productive or
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you want to study better for your exams
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or you just want to live a happier life
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with lessons from stoicism then hit the
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link in the video description and sign
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up to skillshare and then your life too
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can be immeasurably improved as
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mine has been over the years of having a
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skillshare subscription so those were 10
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relatively cheap purchases that have
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improved my quality of life if you're
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interested in finding more ways to
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improve your life then check out this
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very short playlist of life lessons that
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i've learned over the last two years
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there's two videos in that playlist they
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each have about 20 lessons in them and
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people have said that these these
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lessons have also improved their life so
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thank you so much for watching have a
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lovely day and i'll see you in the next
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video bye
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