The Four-Hour Work Week: Reviews, reactions, and excerpts

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.

- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (p. 264)The following is a collection of favorite quotes, concepts, and reviews from The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. I give the book four out of five stars. I'll give it five out of five should I actually end up having a four hour work week like Ferriss claims is possible. Imagine how good I could get at Minesweeper!

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.

- Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner (p. 12)

Comparisons - The Way It Is versus The Way It Should Be (p. 22)

To work for yourself ... vs. ... To have others work for you.To work when you want to ... vs. ... To prevent work for work's sake, and to do the minimum necessary for maximum effect ("minimum effective load").To retire early or young ... vs. ... To distribute recovery periods and mini-retirements throughout life on a regular basis. Doing that which excites you is the goal, not inactivity.To buy all the things you want to have ... vs. ... To do all the things you want to do and be all the things you want to be.To be the boss instead of the employee. To be in charge. ... vs. ... To be neither the boss, nor the employee, but the owner. To own the trains and have someone else ensure they run on time.To make a ton of money ... vs. ... To make a ton of money with specific reasons and defined dreams to chase, timelines and steps included.To have more ... vs. ... To have more quality and less clutter.To reach the big pay-off (IPO, acquisition, retirement, etc.) ... vs. ... To think big but ensure payday comes every day: cash flow first, big payday second.To have freedom from doing that which you dislike ... vs. ... To have freedom from doing that which you dislike, but also the freedom and resolve to pursue your dreams without reverting to work for work's sake.

On timing (p. 33) ...

"The timing is never right. I once asked my mom how she decided when to have her first child, little ol' me. The answer was simple: "It was something we wanted, and we decided there was no point in putting it off. The timing is never right to have a baby." And so it is."

On the perspective of worst case scenarios (p. 41) ...

"Then, one day, in my bliss of envisioning how bad my future suffering would be (stuck in my job), I hit upon a gem of an idea. It was surely a hilight of my "don't happy, be worry" phase: Why don't I decide exactly what my nightmare would be - the worst thing that could possibly happen as a result of my trip (a year-round sabbatical around the world)?"

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

- Mark Twain (p. 47)

On the real question you should be asking yourself (p. 52) ...

"The question you should be asking isn't, "What do I want?" or "What are my goals?" but "What would excite me?""

On the 80/20 rule (p. 69) ...

"The 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the outputs result from 20 percent of the inputs, or ... 80% of results from 20% of effort/time, 80% of profits from 20% of products/customers."Which 20 percent of sources are causing 80 percent of my problems and unhappiness?"Which 20 percent of sources are resulting in 80 percent of my desired outcomes and happiness?"

On two keys to productivity (p. 75) ...

"There are two synergistic approaches for increasing productivity that are inversions of each other:"Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20)"Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson's Law: a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion, i.e. if I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials)"

On the reality of information (p. 83) ...

"Lifestyle design is based on massive action - output. Increased output necessitates decreased input. Most information is time consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watched today and tell me that it wasn't at least two of the four."

How to read 200 % faster in 10 minutes (p. 85)

• Two minutes: Use a pen or finger to trace under each line as you read as fast as possible.
• Three minutes: Begin each line focusing on the third word in from the first word, and end each line focusing on the third word in from the last word. i.e.Once upon a time, an information addict decided to detox. Move in from both sides as it gets easier.
• Two minutes: Once comfortable indenting three or four words from both sides, attempt to take only two snapshots - also known as fixations - per line on the first and last indented words.
• Three minutes: Practice reading too fast for comprehension but with good technique (the above three techniques) for five pages prior to reading at a comfortable speed.

To calculate words per minute, add up the number of words in ten lines and divide by ten to get average words per line. Multiply this by lines per page and you have words per page. Time yourself for one minute.

On e-mail productivity  (p. 92) ...

"Turn off the audible alert if you have one on Outlook."Check e-mail twice per day - once at noon or just before lunch and once again at 4:00."

People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

- Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes (p. 107)

Questions, Answers, and Exercises

In the first half of the book, at the end of each chapter, Ferriss poses several questions for the reader to answer, meant to reinforce the chapter's message and make the reader realize how cool it is to have a four-hour work week and how lame it is to have a forty-hour work week. Thanks, Timothy Ferriss. Jerk.Timothy Ferriss's words are in bold. Mine are in not-bold.PART ONE: PLANNING THE ESCAPE (p. 47)If you are nervous about making the jump or simply putting it off out of fear of the unknown, here is your antidote. Write down your answers, and keep in mind that thinking a lot will not prove as fruitful or as prolific as simply brain vomiting on the page. Write and do not edit - aim for volume. Spend a few minutes on each answer.Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering.Just to be clear, the "what you are considering" would be "quitting my job and investing my time in what I enjoy" ... or something along those lines.If I were to follow through on that plan, the absolute worst that could happen is that LL and I lose all our income, we go on unemployment, we lose health insurance, one or both of us gets sick, we can't pay bills, we can't pay the mortgage, Parks and Rec gets cancelled, I have to search for jobs (which I hate with a burning passion), we have a kid, our kid costs a lot of money, and we can't do anything fun ever again for the rest of our lives.What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily?I could get a job with a temp agency or write freelance here and there at various websites. We could trim the budget to make our savings stretch further.What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of more probable scenarios?Happiness, freedom to search for jobs I want (instead of saying I'm going to search for jobs I want), job satisfaction, autonomy, more time with family.If you were fired from your job today, what would you do to get things under financial control?I'd go on unemployment to get some income for awhile. I'd trim back our budget so that we only live with what we need. I'd cancel Netflix, manage our utility bills better, go crazy with coupons, and sell all the stuff we didn't need around the house. Worst case, I could cancel our phone / Internet and piggyback off friends and the library.What are you putting off out of fear?Having children, changing jobs, spending money.What is it costing you - financially, emotionally, and physically - to postpone action?Well, I've heard child-rearing is pretty amazing, so there's that. Staying where I'm at with my current job is slowly killing me, and I'm sure I'd feel more fulfilled if I were doing something that made a difference. What are you waiting for?I assume this one is rhetorical.PART TWO: DREAMLINING  (p. 54)What would you do if there were no way you could fail? If you were 10 times smarter than the rest of the world? Create two dreamlines - 6 months and 12 months - and list up to five things you dream of having (may include material), being (i.e., a great cook), and doing ( visiting Germany, racing ostriches), in that order. If stuck, consider what you hate or fear and write the opposite. Do not limit yourself, and do not concern yourself with how these things will be accomplished. Be sure not to judge or fool yourself.Having:

• A house in Park City, situated above or near a pizza place, decked out in IKEA furniture, with a projector for a TV
• An iPad with subscriptions to sports programming
• Boise State access (tix / tailgating / TD club)
• A fancy camera and accessories

Being:

• A good piano player
• Fluent in Spanish / Japanese
• A good photographer

Doing:

• Making an iPhone app
• Earning a doctorate
• Curing brain cancer

Splitting it up into six-month dreamlines and 12-month dreamlines would look like this:

• Six months: iPad, Boise State access, camera, piano playing, photographing, app making
• 12 months: Park City home, speaking fluent Spanish, doctorate, curing brain cancer

Drawing a blank? Ask yourself: What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 M in the bank? What would make you most excited to wake up in the morning to another day? ... or ... one place to visit, one thing to do before you die (memory of a lifetime), one thing to do daily, one thing to do weekly, one thing you've always wanted to learn.Convert each "being" into a "doing" to make it actionable. i.e., great cook = make Christmas dinner without helpBeings ...

• A good piano player
• Fluent in Spanish / Japanese
• A good photographer

... changed to doings ...

• Play a song by ear on the piano
• Understand a Spanish-language soccer game
• Have someone ask me how I took such a good picture

What are the four dreams that would change it all? Highlight the four most exciting / important dreams from all columns.

• iPhone app
• Photography
• Piano
• Owning an iPad
• Cure cancer

Determine the cost of these dreams. Calculate your Target Monthly Income for both timelines. What is the cost per month?Determining the cost:

• Building an iPhone app: $99/year developer license, books (free: library), pencils / paper / Macbook (free / already own), C++ and Cocoa training (TBD)
• Getting super good at photography: $850 new camera, $200 Photoshop, camera accessories (variable), lessons (free: online, library)
• Learning to play the piano: a piano (got it), lessons (variable), music theory books (free: online, library)
• Owning an iPad: $499 iPad, $40 case
• Curing cancer: TBD starting a non-profit

To calculate Target Monthly Income, total each of columns A, B, and C, counting only the four selected dreams. some may be zero. Add monthly expenses times 1.3 (30 % buffer for safety). Divide by 30 to get daily income, if desired.Target Monthly Income:  $4,750Target Daily Income: $158Determine three steps for each of the four dreams in the 6-month timeline and take the first step now. Do the first step now, the second tomorrow, and the third the day after that.

• iPhone app - 1) find out where to get C++ training and accreditation, 2) read the iPhone book, 3) begin
• Photography - 1) research camera pricing, 2) find camera in price range, 3) purchase
• Piano - 1) make time for practice, 2) learn scales, 3) find videos online for help
• iPad - 1) research pricing on iPads, 2) decide on accessories, 3) order
• Curing cancer - 1) research similar non-profits, 2) talk to Kenton about non-profits, 3) find out what it takes to get incorporated/licensed

PART THREE: PRODUCTIVITY (p.78)If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day, what would you do?If you had a second heart attack and had to work two hours per week, what would you do?If you had a gun to your head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time-consuming activities, what would you remove?

• No more Google Reader.
• No more football video games.
• No more exercising.
• No more computer.

What are the top three activities that I use to fill time to feel as though I've been productive?

• Read comments on my website.
• Plan ahead for posts and content.
• Check and reply to email.

Learn to ask, "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?"Don't ever arrive at the office without a clear list of priorities. Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening. Use a standard piece of paper folded three times, which fits perfectly in the pocket and limits the amount of items. Never more than two mission-critical items per day. Never.Do not multitask.Use Parkinson's Law on a macro and micro level.PART FOUR: ELIMINATION (p. 86)Go on an immediate one-week media fast.Develop the habit of asking yourself, "Will I definitely use this information for something immediate and important?"Practice the art of nonfinishing. If you are reading an article that sucks, put it down.Though not with articles, I have started doing this with movies and TV shows. It is rather satisfying and empowering to acknowledge that bad TV is not worth my time.PART FIVE: AVAILABILITY, BATCHING, AND AUTOMATION (p. 107)Learn to recognize and fight the interruption impulses. Create systems to limit your availability via email and phone and deflect inappropriate contact.Check.Batch activities to limit setup cost and provide more time for dreamline milestones. What can I routinize by batching? What tasks (laundry, groceries, mail) can I allot to a specific time each day/week/month?Check.Set or request autonomous rules and guidelines with occasional review of results. Eliminate the decision bottleneck for all things that are nonfatal if misperformed.Check (in progress).

COMFORT CHALLENGES

I get two days to complete each comfort challenge. Challenges are in bold. How I did is in a self-consciously less heavy font.

Comfort challenge: Learn to eye gaze. For two days, practice gazing into the eyes of others - whether people you pass on the street or conversational partners - until they break contact.Mission accomplished!I eye-gazed like a super weirdo for two days, and you know what? It wasn't half bad. Turns out people are just as afraid to look me in the eyes as I was to look them in the eyes. My eye contact easily surpassed the majority of people I came across.Comfort Challenge: Learn to propose. Stop asking for opinions and start proposing solutions. Offer a solution, i.e., Where should we go to eat? I propose ...Mission accomplished!I have actually used the exact "I propose" language, which I thought sounded exceedingly dorky and/or romantic when I first read it.Comfort challenge: Get phone numbers.No, but I have been more pushy about getting e-mail addresses.Comfort challenge: Revisit the terrible twos. Do as all good two-year-olds do and say "no" to all requests.Working on it ... people don't ask me to do as many things as they used to (see "interruption impulses" above), so sometimes saying yes is kind of nice.

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