Homework for Life

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I’ve been a fan of Ali Abdaal’s content since not long after he started posting on YouTube, and recently I came across one of his videos where he shared a way of capturing invented by Matthew Dicks called Homework for Life.

The basic idea is to start a spreadsheet and every night, spend 5 minutes to write down your day’s answer to “What is the most story-worthy moment of your day?”

This low-friction habit seems like it would fit my unpredictable college student schedule really well because even one semester in (mind you without real grade pressure yet), I can feel opportunities to sit down to brainstorm and write blogs coming far and few in between. Additionally, I’ve been quite overwhelmed with all that’s happened so far since coming to college and HFL is an efficient way for me to build a system for synthesizing stories that will stay with me the rest of my life.

For 2023, just like Ali, I’m going to commit to doing my Homework for Life everyday, even if it’s as simple as a one minute recounting of my day.