The 4-Hour Workweek Summary

Introduction

As someone who has taken on a new job in my retirement, I wish I had read this book years ago. The 4-Hour Workweek, first written in 2007 and updated in 2009, is a self-help book by Timothy Ferris. It had been on The New York Times Best Seller List for several years and sold millions of copies worldwide.

Many consider The 4-Hour Workweek (4HWW) the Bible of “lifestyle design”. Ferris developed the ideas for this book while working 14 hour days at his sports nutrition supplement company. Motivated by his frustration with overwork and lack of free time, he took a several week sabbatical to Europe. During that time and while continuing travels throughout Europe, Asia and South America, Ferriss developed a more efficient system of working. He developed a streamlined system of productivity techniques, digital technology, outsourcing small daily tasks to virtual assistants, and took advantage of geographical arbitrage. In so doing he was able to trade his workaholic lifestyle for a series of “mini-retirements”, working from remote locations.

From Personal Experience, A Book Idea

His personal practices formed the basis of the 4HWW. Ferriss coined the term “the New Rich” to describe lifestyle designers who choose to abandon the pursuit of traditional retirement luxuries in exchange for the goals of time and mobility. To quote him, “people don’t want to be millionaires — they want to experience what they believe millions can buy.”

In his book, Ferriss does an excellent job of challenging people to rethink the typical grueling 9-5 way of life and the typical practice of deferring gratification until late in life and reevaluate how to make the best use of their time. He supports using tips and tricks that allow you to work efficiently and take advantage of having the ability to work outside of a typical office setting. Although most of the book’s recommendations for sites and online tools are now outdated, the core concepts still hold true.

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What The 4-Hour Workweek is actually about

This book has 3 distinct take aways:

• Defining exactly what you actually want (goal-setting)
• Maximizing output per hour worked (productivity hacks)
• Inspiration and validation of an alternate lifestyle (vs the standard life path)

Goal Setting in The 4-Hour Workweek

Defining success is the most important part. Without a roadmap how are you supposed to know where you’re going? Very few people actually write down what they want in life. What is your purpose in life? What are your values, needs, sources of motivation, and your personal strengths?

A Personal Mission Statement Might Help

One activity you can do to help reflect on these things is to write a personal mission statement. Completing this task is a great way to develop a basis for determining the things that you want to get out of life and why you believe your goals are important. Your mission statement can give you a sense of direction when it comes to your habits, everyday routines, and the choices that you make. By taking a self-inventory of your wants and needs, you will be increasing your chances for success. You have to know yourself as well as possible to design your lifestyle on your own terms.

Ferriss advocates a technique called “dreamlining”, creating a list and timeline of things you dream of having, being and doing, and then calculating a budget for these items.

Productivity in The 4-Hour Workweek

To streamline your work week, you must make your work more productive. In this regard, Ferris advises using the Pareto Principle (or the 80/20 Rule) and being mindful of Parkinson’s Law, restricting potential time-wasting activity such as frequent checking of emails. He discusses the use of email autoresponders, and delegating tasks to (virtual) assistants.

Effectiveness versus Efficiency

Ferriss points out the difference between effectiveness (the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result; success) and efficiency (the ability to do something with the least amount of wasted time, money and effort or competency in performance).

Inspiration and Validation of an Alternate Lifestyle

The 4HWW inspired a paradigm shift, causing people to rethink how and where to work, and how and when to reap the benefits of the income generated by that work. Ferriss specifies ways to escape from the confines of an office while still getting the requisite work done. Those into lifestyle design have adapted this to choose location independent careers.

The book redefines wealth for those who still believe money and material goods are the ultimate measures of success. It is a wakeup call that life is too short to wait to the end to enjoy it.

Myths of The 4-Hour Workweek

I excerpted the following list from a blog called Spartan Traveler that I read on this topic. The author Clayton Cornell elaborates on each myth, so I will refer you to his article for details. Several reviewers have pointed out that Tim Ferriss himself spends far more than 4 hours per week working, but gets around it by redefining “work”.

#1: Building an income stream is easy.

#2: It’s about working 4 hours a week.

#3: You can’t work only 4 hours a week.

#4: You can hire someone else to do your job (growing the business).

#5: It’s about working as little as possible.

#6: You can only do 20% and that’s enough (80/20 rule).

#7: You have to leave home/travel to be a “lifestyle designer“.

#8: You should be killing it/having the time of your life it or you aren’t doing it right.

Conclusion

The 4-Hour Workweek is a book I would recommend to anyone, particularly someone pre-retirement who is fed up with their ho-hum, exhausting or stressful job. It offers actionable tips to improve your lot, even if you are not considering a radical job change. It serves to get you thinking about the benefits of taking breaks from your everyday vocation, maybe tackling some items early on your bucket list while your energy levels and health are still good. If you are interested in purchasing this book in print or on audio, CLICK HERE.

If you are burned out in your current job, interested in developing a new business, working from home (or anywhere) and earning money online, then I invite to look into the online educational courses that I myself took through the Entre Institute. To learn more about Entre, CLICK HERE.