The 4-hour workweek is a lifestyle design book by Tim Ferriss. The online counterpart is available at http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/. These notes don't cover the entire book. I picked the portions that seemed most interesting to me.
This principle states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. It's a principle that Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, came up with. Some examples are:
- 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients
- 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your time
- 20% of your productivity eats up 80% of your time
Ferris argues that we can eliminate 80% of our time and only focus on the 20% with the greatest outcome.
Cyril Northcote Parkinson said:
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Some people's best work is done during a time crunch. Ferris argues we can use this to our advantage by setting short deadlines for ourselves. Doing the minimum effective work focuses us on what's necessary, letting us drop what's not. It also makes us drop distracting activities.
This is where you figure out what you want and get over society's expectations. Ferris also tells us to dreamline. Answer the questions:
- What do you want to do, be or have over the next 12 months? List 3 for each. Make sure the descriptions are concrete. Instead of "I want to be a good cook", it should be "I want to cook Thanksgiving dinner for four."
- Figure out the monthly cost for each goal. The sum is your TMI or Target Monthly Income.
- Figure out the steps you need to take now, tomorrow, and the day after for each goal.
Be truthful. If you had no commitments, what would you want to do with your life?
To help get over your fears, Ferris asks you to define your nightmare situation with details. This is the absolute worse thing that could happen to you if you attempt to complete your goals. Is it that bad? Could you quit your job and if things don't work out ... go back and find another job?
Eliminate as much of your work as necessary. Use Pareto's and Parkinson's Laws. Are there clients you can drop which take up too much time but don't deliver enough profits? Eliminate time wasters such as:
- checking email
- social networks
- RSS feeds
- news aggregators
- multi-tasking
Ferris suggests you go on a one week media fast. Don't read the news or your RSS feed. You'll see that you can live without this information. Eventually, you can go on a permanent information diet.
You want to be effective, not efficient. The amount of manual work you do should output a quantifiable, large amount of wealth or joy.
Force yourself to end the day at 4PM. This puts Parkinson's Law in place.
These chapters were dedicated to income autopilot. Some of the advice was:
- information products work best (marginal cost, high profits)
- test product demand before making it with advertisements
- use google adwords to test out phrasing
- set a high price, $50-$200 to weed out high-maintenance customers
- outsource manufacturing and delivery
- make sure your project can be done passively
- try to hit a niche
Ferris uses the phrase passive income. Your project/product should earn profits while you're not working. Some examples were:
- Venetian t-shirts
- rock climbing DVDs
- stock music
You can take this a step further and automate more. Here's a list:
- income
- bills
- bookkeeping
- chores (vacuum with roomba, clean shower with scrubbing bubbles)
- computer backups
As you design your lifestyle, make sure it can be done from any location around the globe. Ferris talks a lot about travel. He mentions that countries have internet cafes and you should be able to do your work from there ~ 4 hours per week.
The liberation section was based on location, but it also applies to your time. Once you've eliminated unnecessary work and automated your income, you've effectively freed up a ton of time to do what you actually want.
So what do you do? Ferris suggests travel or volunteer. Do the things from your dreamlining exercise.