Work 4 hours a week – Full Review

The title of Timothy Ferriss’s book, Work 4 Hours a Week – Escape the Routine, Live Wherever You Want and Get Rich, is extremely provocative. In the middle of the book, the author comments that he chose the title through a detailed analysis in google adwords, google’s advertising system. In this text, I will do a complete review of the book, going through all the chapters in order to give a complete overview.

If we look at the back cover, we will see the following:

“This guide to a new lifestyle teaches:

– How Timoty Ferriss went from $40,000 a year and 80 hours a week to $40,000 a month and 4 hours a week;

– How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist;

– How to train your boss to value performance over presence;

– How to trade a long career for short periods of work and frequent mini-retirements;

– How to fill the void and create a full life after eliminating work and the office”.

So that when we leaf through the book, on the back cover, we already notice the author’s objectives when writing. In short, the objectives are twofold: earn more and work less. After all, who wouldn’t want to work a few hours a week and have free time to spend with family, travel, pursue hobbies, study or whatever is interesting in a level?

I think that everyone who picks up the book or hears about it is taken aback. After all, we grew up in a socio-cultural context in which excessive, stressful, everyday work, 8-12 hours a day, is related to identity. A person who works hard and is busy is a successful, useful, productive person. On the other hand, how could we value a guy who worked not part-time a day, but part time per week🇧🇷

The title, therefore, generates curiosity and distrust. We thought: how can this be possible? Is it real? Maybe it’s real, but it must not be possible for me or else it must not be possible where I live.

First impressions

My first impressions of the book are that it is not only very well written but also very funny. Throughout the chapters, there are hilarious anecdotes about work and everyday business life. Also, it’s not theoretical or boring. The argument is always filled with examples from the author himself, acquaintances or famous people with quotes that help to fix the content.

In that sense, the whole book is easy and enjoyable. I can’t help but notice that it’s also very convincing and thought provoking. We wondered if completely changing our lifestyle, changing our working hours, wouldn’t be an alternative…

After the Index, we will do a complete chapter-by-chapter analysis.

Index

1) First of all

1.1) Faq – Read this, skeptics

chapter by chapter

1) First of all

1.1) Faq – Read this, skeptics

At the beginning of the book, Ferriss answers the main questions that could arise from the proposal – Work only 4 hours a week. Questions such as: “Should I quit my job?” or “Am I taking risks?” or “Do I have to be single or have possessions or do I have to travel?”

This sub-chapter only occupies one page, but it is essential to show the reader that it is not necessary, for example, to travel around the world like Ferriss or to have a brilliant academic background in a recognized university.

1.2) My story and why you need this book

Starting with a trip to Argentina to learn Tango, the author compares the free and unencumbered lifestyle after having cut out all that was unnecessary from his previous life as a workholic, a compulsive worker. His project can be summarized in this excerpt:

“Gold is getting old. The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon postponed life plans and create luxurious lifestyles in the present, using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science that we will refer to as Life Project from now on” (p. 11). And right after that: “Life doesn’t have to be difficult. There really isn’t. Most people, myself included in the past, spend a lot of time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, resigning themselves to the 9-to-5 day job in exchange for (sometimes) spending a weekend relaxing week and occasional vacation, few days or you will be fired” (p. 12).

This was precisely the theme of our previous text – Waiting for the weekend, for the holiday, for vacation

The book is compelling because it is based on the author’s own story and is, in a sense, biographical.

1.3) Chronology of a pathology

In this topic, we read his life story, year by year, showing an ordinary life like thousands of others. The central idea here is to show that the author – in order to have a life free from everyday work – is not a genius, brilliant person or born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His narrative is of someone who went through experiences, such as problems at school and in his first jobs, found a lucrative business, but which consumed all of his time (80 hours a week). Unhappy with having a little more money and little time, he decides to change and reverse the situation, starting to have a business that does not need his presence, being able to travel the world and have unusual experiences such as being a four-time MMA champion, speaking Chinese and Japanese, become a kick boxing champion, an expert in Argentine tango, a TV presenter in Thailand, and so on.

Read Also: Difference between unconscious and subconscious

For those who aren’t so adventurous or don’t like to travel so much, the book is still a good choice, even because it explains step-by-step how to have more time, eliminating unnecessary and increasing effectiveness and personal efficiency.

2) D for Definition

2.1) Warnings and comparisons

In this part, we see the importance of defining objectives. As we have already shown in other texts, having clear objectives is essential.

– How to achieve your professional goals

– Discover your goals

For example, the author recommends that, instead of having the objective “work for yourself” we should change to “make other people work for you”. It’s a subtle difference, perhaps, but one that will create very different realities. Being someone else’s employee or being an employee of yourself, working for yourself, is equally time consuming. As opposed to making other people work, freeing up time and space for other activities. As they say, “the best business is the one that doesn’t need my presence!”….

2.2) Rules that change the rules

To continue questioning cultural rules and standards, this is the goal of this sub-chapter. Is retirement, this oasis at the end of life, really an interesting ideal? Does working less mean laziness? Should we focus on our best or improve on our worst?

This last point is key: “It’s much more profitable and fun to leverage your strengths rather than trying to fix every crack in your armor. The choice is between multiplication of results using the strengths or development of improvements rectifying weaknesses that will become, at best, mediocre” (p. 32).

Questions at the end of the sub-chapter:

1 – How much has being “realistic” or “responsible” kept you from the life you want?

2 – How much did doing what you “should” result in inferior experiences or regrets about not doing more?

3 – Look at what you are currently doing and ask yourself: “What if I did the opposite of the people around me? What will I sacrifice if I continue on this path for 5, 10, 20 years?

Read Also: Difference between emotion, mood and feeling

2.3) Dodging shots

Here we see that fear paralyzes most people. Fear of losing, fear of not working out, fear of other people’s opinion, fear, fear, fear. The Seneca quote is fantastic here: “Set aside a certain number of days, during which you must content yourself with the smallest and cheapest supplies, with the simplest and oldest clothes, asking yourself, ‘Were they Are these the conditions I feared?” (Seneca). In other words, the worst-case scenario isn’t as bad as we imagine…

Questions: “What’s the worst that could happen? What if the best happens? If you were fired, what would you do or would you have to do?

2.4) Reset the system

Ferriss questions the most common beliefs about what you want and what is possible to achieve. He says: “Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced that they are incapable of achieving great things, so they start aiming for mediocre things. The level of competition is therefore very fierce for “realistic” goals, paradoxically demanding much more time and energy” (p. 44)

Resetting the system means deconstructing and building a new reality, with higher ideas, higher goals. Changing the way of conceiving objectives, he exchanges the search for happiness for the search for excitement, for enthusiasm. The question that generates the best answers is, “What excites me to do?” (p. 46). At the end of this part of the book, there is a schedule, a very interesting plan on how to structure the actions for change.

I would like to highlight an excerpt from the form created by Ferris:

“Convert every ‘being’ into a ‘doing’ so that it becomes achievable (…) Here are some examples: Being a great cook ==> preparing a Christmas dinner without help; Being fluent in Chinese ==> having a five-minute conversation with a Chinese colleague at work” (p. 51).

By converting being something, being a function, being a form to doing an action X, we can control how close we are to achieving our goals, what excites us.

3) And Elimination

3.1) The end of time management

This part of the book is the most useful in practical terms. If you love your job, if you love your business and you don’t want to change, you don’t want to work less, I still recommend reading this chapter. Perhaps you can start here.

Some of Ferriss’ tips were used in other texts on our site. Look here:

– How to do more by doing less – Pareto’s law

– Is what I’m doing important?

3.2) The low-information diet – Cultivating selective ignorance

Contrary to what it may seem, too much information becomes useless. If you spend hours and hours on facebook and twitter, receiving thousands of information per second and questioning yourself after…