Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe — Tim Ferriss
Cleaning out the notebook from the 4-Hour Workweek
The working world is full of nonsense.
Once Tim Ferriss distilled it all down to the bare essentials, he was left with four hours.
I clearly loved the 4-Hour Workweek. I shared my dreamline, highlighted a few quotes but my notebook still had plenty of meat left on the bone.
Below is the best of the rest.
“Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.” — TF
Everyone is busy. Just ask them.
Ferriss cautions that, “Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. And requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.”
Generally, Americans have 40ish hours every week at work.
40 hours.
That is enough time to watch the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4+ times.
Every single week.
And yet, I still get emails from people on the weekends.
No one is questioning the work ethic. But if you can’t figure how to best use your time during the week, how can your judgement be trusted in other areas of your job and life?
Rowing hard and fast in the wrong direction not only tires you out but also puts you further away from your goals.
“Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness — lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
If everyone truly maximized their time, myself included, society would collapse.
But the good thing is, most people don’t. So we’re safe.
The solution is not adding more time to your day or fully utilizing your outlook calendar and tasks. The solution is actually prioritizing your tasks. Eliminating the unimportant and focusing on things that are actually productive.
Ferris referenced a case study about a friend who spend a few months asking himself this question over and over as he would sit down to work on something:
1. Am I being productive or just active?
2. Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?
It is quite illuminating how often the answer ends up on the wrong side of the ledger.
Much of the book is based on Pareto’s 80/20 principle.
“Pareto’s Law: 80% of outputs result from 20% of inputs.”
The vast majority of your results come from minimal effort or time, the 20%.
These are your easy customers. They don’t want anything except your product. They order consistently, pay on time and never complain. Fill in the blank for your job.
The rest, the 80% of your time, headaches, brain power and stress are spent on projects, people, customers, managers and bullshit that do not matter or contribute to your bottom line, whatever that may be.
When the 80/20 principle is applied to work, meaning, cutting out the 80% of time and effort that is spent on only 20% of the results and only focusing on the 20% that is producing the vast majority of your results, your productivity will dramatically improve. You cut out the bulk of your problems without cutting into much, if any, of your actual output.
But, more importantly, when applied to your life outside of work, happiness and fulfillment improve just as much.
This is why Ferris gets so frustrated with this clear inefficiency.
It isn’t only about wasting time and money. It is about the point of it all.
“The point of it all: ‘What a man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.’ — Viktor E. Frankl, Holocaust Survivor, Author of A Man’s Search For Meaning”
Yes.
“Slowing down doesn’t mean accomplishing less; it means cutting out counterproductive distractions and the perception of being rushed.” — TF
Eliminating the unimportant tasks is not so you can have 36 extra hours per week to sit on your buns all day drinking fruity cocktails (although, I think that is encouraged, occasionally).
The point is to take time from things that don’t matter and make time for the things that do.
Or at the very least, give yourself the time to figure out what matters.
“Time without attention is worthless. So value attention over time.” — TF
So What Matters?
That is for you to decide. The dreamline is a good place to start.
This book challenges your status quo.
Ferris does not leave things abstract or theoretical. He tells you what to do and exactly how to do it. Step by step.
How to negotiate to work from home. Giving you flexibility to create a side-business, or, muse. How to outsource non-essential tasks, test the market viability of your business all while keeping your day-to-day hour commitment minimal.
Not everyone is brave enough to take all the steps right away. Including me. Which is only partially because I am afraid.
It is mostly because I am happy. I don’t want Tim Ferriss’ life. But I am happy to use his strategies to improve and evaluate my own.
This book has left me inspired and motivated. I don’t have to quit my job and sell all my possessions to validate that.
The Cutting Room Floor
There was way too much in this book that I loved. Below are the rest of my favorite quotes.
“The first rule of any technology used in business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is, automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” — Bill Gates
“Principle #1 is to refine rules and processes before adding people. Eliminate before you delegate. Don’t assign something unimportant. No one should do it. Using people to leverage a refined process multiplies production; using people as a solution to a poor process multiples problems.” — TF
“Thanks to the interstate highway, it is now possible to travel coast to coast without ever seeing anything.” Charles Kuralt, CBS News Reporter
“Morality is the simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.” — Oscar Wilde
“Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they’re looking for ideas.” — Paula Poundstone
“Nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” — Calvin Coolidge
“If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.” — Frank Wilczek, 2004 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics
“One of the most universal causes of self-doubt and depression: Trying to impress people you don’t like.” — TF
“There are no statues erected for critics.” — TF
“No one aspires to be the bland average; so don’t water down messaging to appeal to everyone — it will end up appealing to no one.” — TF
“Slow meals = life. Meal time with friends is a direct predictor of well-being.” — TF.
By far my biggest take-away.
