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

by Timothy Ferriss

It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable.

Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

Increased output necessitates decreased input.

Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and ou...

1. Two Minutes: Use a pen or finger to trace under each line as you read as fast as possible.

2. Three Minutes: Begin each line focusing on the third word in from the first word, and end each line focusing on the third word in from the last word.

3. Two Minutes: Once comfortable indenting three or four words from both sides, attempt to take only two snapshots—also known as fixations—per line on the first and last indented words.

Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

No newspapers, magazines, audiobooks, or nonmusic radio. Music is permitted at all times. No news websites whatsoever (cnn.com, drudgereport.com, msn.com,fn3 etc.). No television at all, except for one hour of pleasure viewing each evening. No reading books, except for this book and one hour of fictionfn4 pleasure reading prior to bed. No web surfing at the desk unless it is necessary to complete a work task for that day. Necessary means necessary, not nice to have.

2. Develop the habit of asking yourself, “Will I definitely use this information for something immediate and important?”

It’s not enough to use information for “something”—it needs to be immediate and important. If “no” on either count, don’t consume it.

Follow your to-do short list and fill in the information gaps as you go.

Focus on what digerati Kathy Sierra calls “just-in-time” information instead of “just-in-case” information.

Practice the art of non...

More is not better, and stopping something is often 10 times better than finishing it.

Develop the habit of nonfinishing that which is boring or unproductive if a boss isn’t demanding it.

get over the fear of asking, so the outcome is unimportant.

Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.

Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.

Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time.

Not All Evils Are Created Equal

Time wasters: those things that can be ignored with little or no consequence. Common time wasters include meetings, discussions, phone calls, web surfing, and e-mail that are unimportant.

Time consumers: repetitive tasks or requests that need to be completed but often interrupt high-level work. Here are a few you might know intimately: reading and responding to e-mail, making and returning phone calls, customer service (order status, product assistance, etc.), financial or sales reporting, personal errands, all necessary repeated actions and tasks.

Empowerment failures: instances where someone needs approval to make s...

First, limit e-mail consumption and production. This is the greatest single interruption in the modern world.

2. Check e-mail twice per day, once at 12:00 noon or just prior to lunch, and again at 4:00 P.M. 12:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. are times that ensure you will have the most responses from previously sent e-mail.

Never check e-mail first thing in the morning.fn1

Instead, complete your most important task before 11:00 A.M. to avoid using lunch or reading e-ma...

MOVE TO ONCE-PER-DAY as quickly as possible. Emergencies are seldom that.

People are poor judges of importance and inflate minutiae to fill time and feel important.

The second step is to screen incoming and limit outgoing phone calls.

The offending parties have to learn to wait.

Don’t encourage people to chitchat and don’t let them chitchat. Get them to the point immediately.

The third step is to master the art of refusal and avoiding meetings.

This prevents most follow-up questions, avoids two separate dialogues, and takes me out of the problem-solving equation.

3. Meetings should only be held to make decisions about a predefined situation, not to define the problem.

Nine times out of ten, a meeting is unnecessary and you can answer the questions, once defined, via e-mail.

If things are well-defined, decisions should not take more than 30 minutes.

The Puppy Dog Close is invaluable whenever you face resistance to permanent changes.

Get your foot in the door with a “let’s just try it once” reversible trial.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim.

There is an inescapable setup time for all tasks, large or minuscule in scale. It is often the same for one as it is for a hundred.

There is a psychological switching of gears that can require up to 45 minutes to resume a major task that has been interrupted.

Test each of the above batching frequencies and determine how much problems cost to fix in each period.

EMPOWERMENT FAILURE REFERS to being unable to accomplish a task without first obtaining permission or information.

For the employee, the goal is to have full access to necessary information and as much independent decision-making ability as possible.

It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.

People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.

SET THE RULES in your favor: Limit access to your time, force people to define their requests before spending time with them, and batch routine menial tasks to prevent postponement of more important projects.