The 4-Hour Workweek Will Change How You Work
- Posted by glen on April 23rd, 2007
I recently had the privilege of previewing Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, the soon-to-be monster on the best-selling lists. This book has tons of solid information on how to completely transform the way you think about work. From the top down.
The 4-Hour Workweek’s main premise is this: You can do more, by doing less. Much less. It is this core thesis that Ferriss walks us through many different ways to simplify our lives, in order to do more.
A champion of the low-information lifestyle, Ferriss is the poster boy of productivity. But he would argue that even being more efficient still isn’t as good as being more effective. What a great point, especially for this audience.
The entire premise of this blog is built upon the fact that people desire finding better methods for running their lives, and a big part of it is through tools.
Possibly the best thing I ever learned playing the trumpet in my sch
ool band was how to create killer dynamics. My instructor Mr. Cooper made it very clear that if a section or individual instrument had the most important part and it needed to be louder, everyone else was supposed to play softer.
This could easily be a parallel to how we work. Tim points out that no matter how many hours are in our days, we’ll still feel compelled to fill them with unimportant work. It isn’t until you start to take away what you don’t need that you’ll be more productive in less time. We need to constantly evaluate and remove the things that get in the way of the important stuff.
But if there’s one thing that I appreciate most about the book is that Tim has walked the walk. Anyone can give advice and tips (including yours truly), without having any real experience. Not so with Mr. Ferriss. In a very narrow perspective, the book is a case study of his short life of 29 years. In that short of time the man has accomplished things unheard of. His feats include:
- a world-record holder in tango
- a national champion in kickboxing
- an actor
- a lecturer at Princeton
and for the icing on the cake: Tim has done this all while running a multinational firm from a wireless location at many points throughout the world.
Uhhhh…. yeah.
I don’t know about you, but when someone as accomplished as this man puts something down on paper, I’m going to read it. Intently. And I recommend you do the same.
Oh, and Tim’s got a great Experiments in LifeStyle Design.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:04 am
You can listen to Tim’s presentation at SXSW via the SXSW podcast: http://2007.sxsw.com/blogs/podcasts.php/2007/03/19/the_4_hour_workweek_secrets_of_doing_mor
April 24th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Thanks for the resource Johannes. I’ve only listened to part of it, and it’s good stuff!
April 26th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
[...] like a lot of other people shared my sentiments towards Tim’ Book The 4 Hour Work Week. It hit up to number 8 on the Amazon best seller list, [...]
April 26th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Im tempted to get it, but I am a little put off by a very suspicious looking attempt to rig the Amazon’s review engine. Almost all the reviews where written on the same day…Now the book may or not be good, but this seems very odd..
April 26th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Well, I read it and reviewed it as amazon. We were distributed copies waaaay before it was available on Amazon. Trust me, there’s no attempt to rig amazon. If that were true, why isn’t it at number one? :)
April 30th, 2007 at 1:25 am
[...] author Tim Ferriss. Tim (among his many incredible feats) released a book called The 4-Hour Work Week, and it has instantly become a mega-hit. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with the renaissance [...]
June 20th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
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June 23rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
[...] The 4-hour workweek will change how you work @ Lifedev [...]
July 7th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
[...] any excuse not take 2 days off at the end of a work week, it’s Tim. The man is promoting a best-selling book, yet he knows that his physical/emotional/mental needs are more important in the long run, and [...]
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 am
Have you seen the spoof version of the 4 hour workweek by Tim Ferriss?
It is called the 100-Hour Workweek: NEVER Escape Your Job, Live Alone, and Join the New Poor.
Made me laugh, I thought it may amuse your readers.
http://retiredat21.com/the-100-hour-workweek-never-escape-your-job-live-alone-and-join-the-new-poor/
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:38 am
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September 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
[...] review. 4hww is strongly recommended. At The 4-Hour Workweek Will Change How You Work , you feel strongly compelled to go buy a copy of 4hww first [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
The story of Timothy Ferris is one that should be analysed with caution. I find it hard to believe that we, among the most educated believe this is a good example to set. What happens when everyone outsources their work? Who will be left to do the work? He does make a good point about doing what you love instead of working for cash to buy things you really don’t need. One can argue indefinitely on the subject, but the fact remains that what someone is not doing here, there is a human doing the work while being exploited overseas and the prevalent message of today should be to end the inequality of opportunities instead of the reverse.
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