Productivity
by Tim Ferriss
Why wait for retirement?
The usual plan is to work flat out for decades and enjoy life once you retire. Tim Ferriss calls it the deferred-life plan, and asks why the best part comes last. His way out has four steps that spell DEAL: definition, elimination, automation and liberation.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Definition starts with what's stopping you. Ferriss calls his exercise fear-setting. Write down the worst that could happen if you made the leap, and how you'd repair the damage. Then write down what waiting is costing you. On paper, the disaster tends to look survivable.
Elimination uses two old ideas together. The Pareto principle says about 80 per cent of results come from 20 per cent of the effort, so find that 20 and drop the rest. Parkinson's law says work swells to fill the time you give it, so give it less.
Automation means income that doesn't need you there. Ferriss's name for it is a muse, a small product business run with outsourced help. He tests demand with cheap online adverts before making anything, so you learn whether people will buy while it still costs little.
Liberation means breaking free of one fixed place. Ferriss's answer is the mini-retirement, a few months living somewhere else, taken again and again through your working life. For an employee, it starts with persuading the boss to let you work away from the office.
Fear-setting
Write down the worst that could happen. It's usually less scary and more fixable than you think.
80/20
Find the few customers and tasks that bring most of your results, and drop the rest.
Parkinson's law
Tasks swell to fill whatever time you allow, so give them tight deadlines.
Selective ignorance
Most news and email can wait or be ignored. You'll miss very little.
Outsourcing
Pay a virtual assistant to handle routine tasks you don't need to do yourself.
A story from the book
Ferriss was working all hours running his supplement company when he applied 80/20 to his customers. A handful brought in most of the money, while a few others caused most of the grief. He stopped serving the worst of them. His income went up and his hours came down.
One thing to try
Pick one thing you'd do if time weren't the problem, like a month learning Spanish in Seville. Add up what it would really cost each month. Ferriss calls this dreamlining, and he finds the number is often lower than people expect.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The 4-Hour Workweek comes with a Your Move story to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhy wait for retirement? The usual plan is to work flat out for decades and enjoy life once you retire. Tim Ferriss calls it the deferred-life plan, and asks why the best part comes last. His way out has four steps that spell DEAL: definition, elimination, automation and liberation.
Define the nightmare; Cut the list, then the clock; Build a muse; Retire in instalments.
Pick one thing you'd do if time weren't the problem, like a month learning Spanish in Seville. Add up what it would really cost each month. Ferriss calls this dreamlining, and he finds the number is often lower than people expect.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The 4-Hour Workweek in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Your Move story to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
