I have recently read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. The eye-catching title has made me asked myself how can it be done. How can you just work 4 hours a week and still earn a living that will sustain your desired lifestyle? I was curious and once I started reading the book, it was almost impossible for anyone to extract it away from me. I completed it in less than two days. It consumed me and it set me thinking about the way I work and how I live my life. Here are some of the things I learned from The 4-Hour Workweek.
Pareto's Law or 80/20 Principle
The Pareto's Law is a mathematical formula that Vilfredo Pareto, a controversial economist-cum-sociologist, used to demonstrate a grossly uneven distribution of wealth in society. Even though, I may have heard of this principle before, but I have not seen it being applied in everyday life. Tim Ferriss demonstrated how it can be applied in daily life. For instance, 80% of the results is derived from 20% of the effort and time. If you are a businessman, 80% of your profits is derived from 20% of your customers. If you write for Triond, 80% of your earnings is derived from 20% of your articles. Check your statistics! It's true! Parkinson's Law
The Parkinson's Law states that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time alloted for its completion. Have you ever had to complete an assignment at school? Your lecturer gave you 1 week for the assignment and you took all of that 1 week to complete it. It is the magic of the imminent deadline, said Tim Ferriss. If you are given any amount of time to complete a task, that is the amount of time you will utilize. So, the thing is to give yourself shorter deadlines to complete any task. Low-Information Diet
Ferriss suggests that you cultivate a low-information diet. He states that most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals and beyond your influence. It may well be very true and a great way to counter information overload. Some of us want to know every single detail before making a difficult decision. And you know what, things may still go wrong after you have made the decision based on information you had. Who says that having a lot of information will ensure that you will not have any problems subsequently? Time-Wasters
Who checks their e-mails a dozen times a day? I used to be guilty of that too. But now, I have cultivated the habit of checking my e-mails just once or twice a day. Ferriss also suggests that you create an e-mail autoresponse to tell your colleagues and friends that you are implementing the twice-daily routine. If it's really urgent and the matter can't wait for the next time you read the e-mail, they will have to contact you via your cellphone.
Ferris then went on to suggest that you screen incoming and limit outgoing phone calls. He also teaches you the art of saying "NO" and ways to avoid meetings. Time-Consumers
One type of time consumers are repetitive tasks which interrupts important tasks. Examples of such repetitive tasks include bill payment, doing the laundry, getting the groceries, and reading e-mails. The solution is to wait until you have more of such tasks to be completed together at the same time. This is called batching. You can also have routine batching, assigning the tasks to be completed at certain times of the month. Empowerment Failures
Empowerment failures refers to the inability of your employees to accomplish a task without first obtaining your permission or information. The solution Ferriss provides is to allow employees to have full access to necessary information to allow for independent decision-making and to given them permission to act or fix problems that cost under $X without contacting you. Subsequently, you need to review and adjust your rules accordingly. Outsource Your Life
Ferris believes in outsourcing less important tasks to Virtual Assistants from third-world countries such as India and China. He engages VA for business and personal reasons. It's very convenient because these people are working for you while you sleep due to the different time zones they are in. What a great way to maximize your resources! Income Autopilot
Although this is not so simple to implement, however Ferriss has managed to simplify the steps to have your income stream on autopilot. The first step is to pick an affordably reachable niche market. Then you brainstorm for products. Lastly, you micro-test your products. If there is a real demand, launch it. Remote-Control CEO
After having income on autopilot, it's time to automate everything so that your business runs with or without you. You can automate everything through having virtual receptionists, engaging fulfillment companies, and implementing affiliate programs. Ferriss shows you the ways to do it. Mini-Retirements
Mini-retirements are not just going on vacation for a week or two in a year. No, he really mean that you engage in a long-term international travel, staying in a particular country for three months or so, taking the time to absorb it all - be it the culture, language, people or sports. In fact, he compares the cost of traveling overseas to the cost of staying at home. Going overseas may be actually cheaper.
The 4-Hour Workweek has transformed the way I think dramatically. I'm looking forward to transforming my life from the tips and strategies I learned in this book.
