The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich

by Timothy Ferriss

In conversation, maintain eye contact when you are speaking. It’s easy to do while listening.

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.

The entrepreneur’s goals are less complex, as he or she is generally the direct beneficiary of increased profit.

Being Effective vs. Being Efficient

EFFECTIVENESS IS DOING the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible.

Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default m...

Here are two truisms to keep in mind: 1. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. 2. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.

What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it.

Efficiency is still important, but it is useless unless applied to the right things.

What gets measured gets managed.

80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs.

80% of the consequences flow from 20% of the causes.

More customers is not the goal and often translates into 90% more housekeeping and a paltry 1–3% increase in income. Make no mistake, maximum income from minimal necessary effort (including minimum number of customers) is the primary goal.

Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant.

Being selective—doing less—is the path of ...

Focus on the important few and ign...

lack of time is actually lack of priorities.

There is often no incentive to use time well unless you are paid on commission.

Time is wasted because there is so much time available.

You don’t need 8 hours per day to become a legitimate millionaire—let alone have the means to live like one.

Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.

The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.

1. Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20).

2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law).

If you haven’t identified the mission-critical tasks and set aggressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes the important.

I spent months jumping from one interruption to the next, feeling run by my business instead of the other way around.

Most inputs are useless and time is wasted in proportion to the amount that is available.

breakfast of champions: the Low-Information Diet.

At least three times per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active?

Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?

Dedication is often just meaningless work in disguise. Be ruthless and cut the fat.

We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don’t feel that anymore.

THE KEY TO having more time is doing less, and there are two paths to getting there, both of which should be used together: (1) Define a to-do list and (2) define a not-to-do list. In general terms, there are but two questions:

What 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?

What 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired out...

you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends.

If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.

Don’t ever arrive at the office or in front of your computer without a clear list of priorities.

Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening.

There should never be more than two mission-critical items to complete each day.

If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?

What will happen if I don’t do this, and is it worth putting off the important to do it?

Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?

is a symptom of “task creep”—doing more to feel productive

As stated, you should have, at most, two primary goals or tasks per day.

On a weekly and daily macro level, attempt to take Monday and/or Friday off, as well as leave work at 4 P.M.

If doing work online or near an online computer, http://e.ggtimer.com/ is a convenient countdown timer.

NOT reflect it back with, “Well, what do you want to …?” Offer a solution. Stop the back-and-forth and make a decision.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.