Paul Yu

2024/5/25 Saturday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #95

• Yesterday before I deleted Instagram I saw a story where a few people I saw last week met up without me. That's the worst part of Instagram, making you feel left out. It's not the fact that I missed out, it's that one or more of them didn't want me there with them. We were people that had met for the first time last week and they liked each other but didn’t like me enough to invite. I don't need to see that shit. I'm better off not looking at other people's stories.
• I wonder if these stream-of-consciousness writings are of any help. Been doing them every day for two weeks and I don't know if I see a big difference in anything. Maybe I’m just not aware of it? Don't know if I have much to say about them even if I try to make a video out of it.
• During this no-social-media challenge, I will read as much as possible.

2024/5/24 Friday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #94

• Deleted all my social media today. Doing a 10-day challenge. Timmy is the reason I'm doing this challenge (he suggested doing 30-day challenges like Matt D'Avella). I guess I'm going all in on this video and I don't know if it'll pay off. It's an experiment. I'll film myself every day and make the best video possible. It won't be my usual video. I wonder if it'll be worth the 10 days.
• Another idea is "I tried eating only meat for 10 days". Ideally, I only eat grass-fed meat but I don't know if that's possible. I'm interested to see what happens, how I feel, and how my body responds. I wonder if there's a place I can do blood tests or other measurements to track changes in my body. It'll limit my being able to eat out. That'll suck.

2024/5/18 Saturday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #88

• The advice from Timmy yesterday was that when it comes to making videos, personal experience and personal thoughts are king. Don't just spew out advice from books, speak from personal experience or give your honest take on something. Then the video can't be copied or replicated by others. You stand out. It's harder to do that with advice videos because that means I have to try out the advice beforehand, but they would make for better videos for sure.
• I've been slacking on going to the gym lately. The past 3 weeks I only went 2-3 times per week. Really need to step up my game, although my left wrist is still not completely healed from its sprain.
• Scheduling doesn't mean I follow it, especially if I sit on the couch. Once I sit on the couch I don’t want to get up. If I want to follow my schedule, I should not sit on the couch.

2024/5/17 Friday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #87

• A tip from Chris Williamson: text your friends whenever you're thinking about them. Just say, "Hey (name), I thought of you and hope you're doing well." Very simple. I like that a lot.
• Another tip from Chris Williamson was to say what you want from someone. Not saying what you want is breeding resentment. So tell people what you're thinking: what you want from them, what you think about them, when you like something they do, and when you don't like something they do.
• Do these brain dumps help with my reflection or gaining insights? Maybe, but the benefits feel subtle. I've been doing them every morning for a week now, can't say I've seen a huge benefit.

2024/5/16 Thursday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #86

• During my super helpful call with Chase, he was getting me to make my YouTube video on the spot. My topic was, “content you watch affects you”. When I was stuck on what to say next, Chase asked, “Why do you think that or why is it important to you?” Very useful nudges.
• Chase also said to get more specific and personal. Instead of “TV with family” say “spending some quality time with my mom”. I do agree the second one has a better feel than the more generic first one.
• So the two takeaways from my call with Chase this morning are to get more personally specific and ask yourself, “Why does this matter?” when you get stuck trying to script.

2024/5/11 Saturday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #81

• Timmy said, "If you work on YouTube full-time you'll eventually be paid full-time." That's encouraging to hear, coming from a full-time YouTuber.
• I need to treat YouTube like a full-time job like Timmy said. That means working on it at least 4 hours every day.
• I want to stream flute and Tekken more. And also read. That leaves me little time for watching YouTube.
• Maybe reading is better than YouTube for video ideas, I don't know.
• Kong said to end your videos abruptly. Maybe I'll cut out my outro mid-sentence like Nate Black.
• Timmy said making what you want to make is important because otherwise, you'll burn out.

2024/5/10 Friday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #80

• I really gotta get faster and picking a video idea and moving on. Rank my ideas and just go for the highest ranked ones first. Otherwise I'll keep wasting so much time picking a video idea.
• Waking up at 7 am these days to alarm but still not productive most mornings. Let's try doing these SCWs (stream-of-consciousness writings) first thing in the morning.
• I've been scheduling my day in the morning but I haven't been following them – ignoring making a video and just watching TV or checking phone messages.
• White guy at the gym respected me for doing pull-ups. I guess I'll earn more respect from more guys as I get more muscular.

2024/4/19 Friday

Notes from my stream of consciousness writing #79

• Woke up at 5:00 a.m. starting today. Hamza does it, yes, but the reason I'm doing it is because of Niels, my accountability partner. He asked me, "How can you outwork me, Paul?" And he's right, I can't outwork him if I keep waking up at 8:00 a.m. or later when he's getting up before 5:00 a.m. every day.
• At best, my day will start off well and I'll have a fully productive day. At worst, my day will derail later but I'll have at least got shit done in the morning.
• I don't care if Hamza outworks me but Niels keeps pushing me and I know him personally so the same message is much more powerful from Niels. The power of having a hustler accountability partner I talk to daily.
• I should be in bed by 9:00 p.m. at the latest, so I have to start getting ready for bed at 8:00 p.m.