I put lessons from the 4-hour Work Week (Tim Ferriss) into real-life action
Hello, dear friend! I recently read the 4-hour Work Week, a rather unconventional productivity book by Tim Ferriss, and thought I would put some suggestions he made into action. I’ll write about what exactly these tactics are, how I incorporated them into my life, and how I felt about it after.
Spoiler: I did not end up having a 4-hour work week. But hey! It’s a start!
Ferriss’ Suggestions
80/20 Rule
Now, you’ve probably heard of this many times by now, but I’ll re-iterate it again to make sure we’re all on the same page. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that for most things, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the effort.
My incorporation: Being critical and asking myself if every single thing I’m doing makes sense and is the 20% that attains the most results. I find that especially for my Science modules which are content heavy, daily flashcards help me retain knowledge in my long-term memory, making it easier to make links between new and old concepts in the classroom. Flashcards, to me, are an example of the 20% of the effort I put into a Science module, apart from going for classes and drawing concept maps, that give me 80% of the results I want.
To-Do Lists and Mission Critical Items
Ah, to-do lists. These used to be my favorite. I’d write out daily to-do lists that were 8 items long and stress out over not completing every single one of them everyday. Sound familiar?
Ferriss suggests to only have 2 primary “mission-critical” to-do items per day. That is, asking yourself, “if this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied?”
My incorporation: Every morning before I got started with work, I’d check my calendar for looming deadlines and write down only 5 to-do items daily, marking 2 of them as “mission-critical” with an asterisk next to it.
Asking myself the above question, characteristics of a “mission-critical” task to me were:
(1) It shouldn’t be something I’d complete today anyway due to a pressing deadline,
(2) I want to get started on this task early so I can reap long term rewards (eg. Flashcards, starting an essay early), and
(3) This task makes sense to do. (See 80/20 rule above)
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law is a cool one. It states that a task expands to fill the time in which you give it. An example is having a whole day to write an essay. More often than not, you could probably work on the essay all day without even finishing it in the end. Conversely, giving yourself only 2 hours to work on the same task would more probably yield a completed essay, ignoring quality.
Likewise, Ferriss suggests to set an “impossible time limit” per to-do list item. Think you can finish a task in 30 minutes? Set a timer for 25.
My incorporation: Beside every to-do item, I estimated how long I’d take to complete that task, and assigned it a tough time limit. I’d then use E.gg Timer to time myself, keeping the timer open in a visible window to induce a sense of urgency.
Putting It All Together
A typical to-do list thus looked like this:
- MNO tutorial reading (30min)
- * Anki Core (30min)
- * Watch MKT lectures (2h)
- MKT concept maps (45min)
- Subject pool surveys (30min)
Then I got down to work!
I also used Rescue Time to track my effectiveness and work hours. This application tracks how many hours a day you’ve worked on the computer, which applications you were using, and most useful of all, your productivity score (how focused were you?).
How’d It Go?
After incorporating the 3 above concepts into my daily routine for a week from 3 to 9 March 2020, here are some thoughts I had during and after the experiment.
On Time Limits
On the first 2 days of this new productivity method, the results were astounding. I found that the time limit was extremely useful in 2 ways. First, was to get me started. Thinking that you are only going to spend 30 minutes on a task seems way less daunting than 4 hours, so it got me doing. And we know that an object in motion stays in motion. Next, the time limit forced me to work fast. Faster than I would have without it for sure. This freed up a lot of time to do other things such as nap, exercise, and hang out with my family.
However, sometimes it was difficult to adhere to the time limits. For almost every to-do on Day 2, I spent twice the allotted time completing the task. I improvised by setting a new time limit again once the timer went off. In this manner, I quickly developed an appreciation for how much time I spent on various tasks, something I hadn’t thought about before.
A Loophole — Motivation
Halfway through the week, I stopped crossing off all items on my daily to-do list. This was because there were items on there that I found boring. While flashcards may yield me 80% of my results, doing them is mentally taxing, and the process can be boring at times. And while I marked them as “mission-critical” tasks, I simply did not find the motivation to do them.
Reflecting on my to-do list, I realized that I did not specify the order in which I’d do the tasks. Often, I’d put urgent tasks with pressing deadlines earlier in the day, with more routine items such as flashcards in the afternoon.
However, my optimal work times are in the morning, while late afternoons are where I experience a major slump in productivity. Thus, I shifted the order in which I did work around. For tasks that I found to be the most mundane and difficult to get through, I did them first thing in the morning when my discipline muscle was strong and motivation was not needed. More urgent and intrinsically motivating tasks were pushed to the late mornings or early afternoons.
Thus, for tasks you do not feel motivated to do, but are still the 20% that lead to 80% of your results, schedule them at the time of day where your mind is the strongest and most disciplined.
Doing Too Much
While this method led me to being way more productive than before, I realized I committed a big mistake — adding even more tasks onto my plate when I finished my to-dos beforehand.
Drunk on the success of Ferriss’ methods, I happily piled more tasks onto myself, working for almost 8 hours a day. This quickly led to burn out since I went from a more relaxed lifestyle to one where I sat down at the computer for many hours. In addition, my to-do lists did not take into account classes and meetings I had to attend. Those sapped up energy, but I didn’t log them down as “tasks”.
At the same time, I acknowledge I am a normal human being with emotions, so certain interactions led me to desperately need a time out to reflect on situations at hand. After just 5 days of incorporating Ferriss’ suggestions into my daily routine, I needed an extended break.
So funnily, while ‘The 4-hour Work Week’ is geared towards trimming down on tasks, I grew ironically overwhelmed! Of course, this was totally self-imposed. I have since started taking into account group meetings and classes into tailoring my daily to-do list. For example, if I were to be out at school for 6 hours on a certain day, I’d write only 2 simple to-dos to complete then.
Note that I would not spend time writing down my meetings as tasks, because that’s just a waste of time! (But if you’re the type of person who loves crossing out tasks on your to-do list, go right ahead populating it.)
Summary
Overall, Ferriss’ suggestions are definitely useful to get your productivity sky high and complete crucial tasks in less time. However, being self-aware of your own tendencies and habits are still essential in modifying these methods to suit your personal goals and lifestyle.
For me, I will be continuing with this very method of (1) focusing on the 80/20 rule when writing my to do lists, (2) having only 2 mission-critical tasks per day, and (3) setting a time limit per item. In addition, I will now pay closer attention to the order in which I do tasks, scheduling more routine but necessary items in my most optimal work times. Lastly, be realistic in the way I write my to-dos taking into account my schedule and energy levels to prevent overworking.
Hopefully you found this post useful to gain deeper insight into how you carry out your daily activities. Here’s a quote from Tim Ferriss on focusing on what’s crucial:
Here are two truisms to keep in mind:
Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.
Just some food for thought!
Let me know if you’ve tried out any similar productivity techniques and what works for you.
I’m currently trying to get back into the habit of reading books and writing more (thus the book reviews)! I have been relatively successful so far. If you’re curious, you can view my reading progress on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/tankityung
