The 4-Hour Workweek
Written by Tim Ferris.
⏱️ The book in three sentences
The vast majority of our days consist of unproductive, time-wasting work like email management and pointless meetings.
Eliminate the bullsh*t from your life, automate, delegate and outsource as much as possible, in that order.
Spend your newfound time on what is fulfilling and meaningful to you.
🪞 Reflections
The 4-Hour Workweek is simultaneously genius, out-of-touch and more relevant than ever in 2021. Working from home has gone mainstream, there are more ways than ever to excel in a remote setting, and employees around the world have found freedom in the hours clawed back from the daily commute. But, is Ferris' remaining advice still possible? How much of his story is just a fairytale?
Back in 2007, the 4-Hour Workweek must have been an inspiring and revolutionary guide. Aimed at the whopping 85% of American employees who hate their jobs, Ferris takes the reader through a step-by-step guide to a fantastical liberation. In what he calls Dreamlining, Tim helps the reader consider what they actually want to do with their life. In a perfect world, with unlimited free time, minimized responsibilities, and an eliminated need for more cash, what would you do? Would you buy yourself the red convertible? Spend 6-months surfing the blue waters of Thailand? Or would you just spend more time with the people you care about?
The author is asking us to consider what we want to do in retirement, and by definition, what have we convinced ourselves is currently impossible. This is an important point. Ferris reminds us that waiting until retirement is stupid. Life is short so we need to make the most of it. This point, however, is argued in a more practical and refined manner. He says, for example, a gap on your resume isn't the disaster we lead ourselves to believe. You can always pick your career back up. If an interviewer asks, tell them you had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do _____ and you couldn't turn it down. They may even ask you for advice. Ferris doesn't sugarcoat it, though. The chapters ahead make drastic recommendations; you have to be willing to risk your job and security for the reward of freedom.
The next part of the book: Elimination, is where it starts to get good. Here, the 4-Hour Workweek goes deep on explaining Ferris' ideology on the unnecessities of office life. We spend most of our time with busy work, inbox management, unproductive meetings, etc, and the data seems to back this up. According to a study done by vouchercloud.com, the average UK-based office worker spends only 3-hours a day on productive work. Tim gives actionable tips, tricks and scripts to use with our co-workers and bosses to eliminate as much of the useless work as possible and help us focus on getting more done in less time.
The book is extreme, however, encouraging the reader to cut email checking down to once per week, maybe even once per month and eliminate all meetings. This is part of the book's allure, but the advice is simply impossible for what I imagine is the vast majority of people. Most work is intensively collaborative. It may be possible to reduce the mental load of information and requests from our intermediary and outer environments. But, much of our information intake is a daily obligation. Beyond that, our inner circle, our teams, often require us to be in near-constant communication to ensure the detailed aspects of our work are done to sufficient quality. Total elimination is ridiculous.
As usual, the ideal work/life balance is somewhere in the middle. It's useful to read Ferris' take because, despite the impossibility of his suggestions, it forces you to examine your own workday and ask yourself what you could eliminate. In other words, The 4-Hour Workweek's advice can be scaled back to fit your own preferences.
Next, Ferris outlines how exactly to create a side income on the internet. How to find a niche, test your idea through keyword tools, fake storefronts and targetted ads. Guides, suggestions and services to help with sourcing, producing, operating, demonstrating expertise, and distribution is all provided. The 4-Hour Workweek makes starting a side business clear, unintimidating and simple, but not easy. This isn't snake oil or a get rich quick scheme we're talking about. Nowhere does Ferris say the process is easy. He's saying "if you want to put in the work, this is everything I've learned and how I would do it if I had to start from scratch." It's an amazing resource.
Now that you supposedly have more time and more income, the 4-hour workweek moves on to how to effectively use them. Tim spends his time travelling and assumes that most people, given the same flexibility and wealth, would do the same. He gives practical advice on everything from getting cheap flights to paying less domestic taxes and how to find interesting things to do over extended stays abroad. Ferris even discusses overcoming the anxiety and philosophical struggles you might meet when faced with a sudden excess of opportunity. "Don't fret," he says, "It's all normal." You can find meaning in life outside of traditional work. Devote your life to learning or charity. "Do your best and hope for the best. If you're improving the world - however you define that - consider your job well done".
💥 Personal Impact
I'm not the target audience for this book. I don't dream endlessly of leaving my life behind. I enjoy working, the pursuit of career development, and building relationships in the workplace. Nonetheless, I found the 4-Hour Workweek incredibly inspiring. In today's world, where the quantity of attention-demanding information dwarfs the quantity of time we have to consider it, Ferris' advice on cutting out the irrelevant is refreshing. In a little over a month, I'll begin my new job as an audit associate. Time will be at a premium. Tim suggests avoiding checking your email in the morning to focus on the most important task of the day, turning off email notifications and checking your inbox twice a day. The idea is tempting but it's hard to commit to this before getting a sense of what my day-to-day will really look like. Nonetheless, I may start with no email until 10 am and only check thrice-a-day. Reducing or increasing as possible or as needed.
Where the book really impacted me though was in regards to creating a side gig. I like the idea of diversifying my income and even though, unlike in 2007, making money on the internet is now mainstream, I think it's still in the early stages. Even recently, over the last month or so, I've talked to no less than three people that either salvaged their income through online work after being furloughed during lockdowns or have had an amazing job and life opportunities after consistently sharing their work on social media for an extended period.
The 4-Hour Workweek helped me brainstorm a niche and point me in all the right directions to get started.
🗣 Top three quotes
“Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time-and energy-consuming.”
“Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline."
"If you can't define it or act upon it, forget it"