Who wouldn’t be intrigued by the title? The 4-Hour Workweek
If you have worked for any length of time, Ferriss will help you recognize the time-wasters in your life. One of my big sins is that I frequently check my e-mails so Ferris recommends a schedule for the task. Are you bothered by the telephone? He gives you tactics to deal with that. How about co-workers who pop in? I have felt trapped by unexpected visitors and he can tell you how to deal with that person.
One of the keys in the book was Ferriss’ use of Pareto’s Law or the 80/20 Principal or 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. As I sat and grasped the principal I started ticking off the 20% of inputs that cause 80% of my work problems and my need to “fire” them. I am really intrigued by this.
Perhaps the concept that most captured my heart was working remotely. I have been saying for years that I could do 4 of my five days of work from my home. That comes to 80%! Even before reading this book I have been saying that my goal was to work from home 2-4 days a week. I recently started a new job and really have a lot to learn before I can achieve this including making my new boss comfortable with me and my contributions.
Timothy Ferriss also provides some guidance in how to fill your new free time and many of his adventures involved travel. That probably wouldn’t be my first choice, but I enjoyed reading about his adventures. On two occasions I have been between jobs and both times I was fortunate to have other employment lined up, but there was some time when I was not working. It was fun to have time to do stuff, but after a while restlessness moved in. Part of this is the perception that if I was not working, I was wasting time. Ferriss’s thoughts:
“Doing less meaningless work so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.”
“Slowing down doesn’t mean accomplishing less; it means cutting out counterproductive distractions and the perception of being rushed.”
“Effectiveness is doing things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.”
There is so much to absorb and try from the pages. I don’t think I’ll be able to achieve the 4-hour work week as quickly as some of his fans, but I will definitely work my way forward using some of Ferriss’ concepts. I have roughly 20 pages marked for future reference.
This is worth reading.
