The 4 Day Work Week Revisited

Ok after reading the book, just about twice, I must agree with my man Carl.

Carl wrote to me early last week stating the following:

I have read the "4 hour work week" and it is that kind of thought process that is putting us in the financial crisis that we are in today. You appear to be very young, but mature. Your work ethic (if what I read is true) is reflective of an older generation’s thinking. What you get in the "4 hour work week" is a body of work craftily written by Ferriss, that leads younger thinkers into a lazy, shortcut, way of life which produces more jobs overseas. This lazy-man's mentality has created the Dot-com bubble as well as helped create this real estate Problem we are seeing. People think they deserve more without working for it. They deserve bigger better cars, and bigger houses without putting in the hours and getting the experience. I am interested to hear your personal assessment, am I right about you or not! Maybe I am the one out of touch but I don't think so.
Carl W. Swindell

At first Carl might appear to be a grumpy old man, but I have to agree with Mr. Swindell on this one. Carl you are not out of touch. I think the “4 Hour Work week” is similar to “The Secret”. (You all know how I feel about the Secret). It sells you on the fact that your dreams can come true by just asking. Ferris can get away with things like, “taking one day off per week” to work from home. Then eventually proving to your boss that you are more affective at home and just not coming in to the office anymore.

Imagine if you walked into work and told your boss that you would be more productive at the crib. He would look at you like you were crazy, then tell you to sit “Sit your Ass Down”.

I am from the Jim Rohn school of thought. I think you have to do more then what you are paid to do, while you are working for someone else. This, at least helps you keep your job, especially during times of financial hardship. I put in a good 11 hour day and get paid for 8. This work ethic, some help from god, and a bag of luck is why I haven’t been laid off yet in Michigan.

You must also remember that you must work harder on yourself to get ahead. So my mantra is work really hard at work, then really work harder on yourself. Like Jim Rohn says, “working hard at work can make you a living, working harder on yourself will make you a fortune”. “A salary will earn you a living, Profits will make you a fortune”.

WHATS GOOD ABOUT THE BOOK

Don’t get me wrong, There is still a lot to learn from “4 Hour Work week”: Like checking your emails at strategic points during the day.

I now only check my email in the morning (1 hr. before start time), at lunch and after 5:00. I used to try and check it as it comes in, and that’s just crazy. At these strategic times I’m answering and checking email and no email or very little is coming in. This methond allows you to give each mail the focus and attention it needs and move to the next. It’s super efficient.

TIME MANAGEMENT

He also gives good tips on time management:

“Forget all about it” He says. “In the strictest sense, you shouldn’t be trying to do more in each day, trying to fill every second with a work fidget of some type”.

Then he mentions two great points 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.

The last point I wanted to mention on time management is multitasking. Which I am an awful offender of:

He says, “If you prioritize properly, there is no need to multitask. It is a symptom of “Task Creep”. Doing more to feel productive while accomplishing less. Do things separately from start to finish without distraction. Divided attention will result in more frequent interruptions, lapses in concretion, poorer net results and less gratification.

The remainder of the book is just your basic goal setting stuff that you hear over and over in seminars, and outlandish plots and schemes to get your work week down to 4 hours. Such as out sourcing your daily activities overseas – What a joke!!

He does have a basic listing of 13 mistakes of the new rich. I will list those next week so we can disscuss them.

I don’t want to bore you to death any more this week.

In conclusion it’s a decent read, you will learn something; but I don’t highly recommend it. Because it’s been on the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list for so long, it might be brought up as topic at a dinner party, so it would be nice to be able to talk intelligently about it.

I would borrow a copy or go to borders and do a skim. If you do read it, let us know your thoughts.

I still think multitasking is the Shiznit: I’m blogging, watching Grey’s Anatomy, and supersetting a set of 20 situps during the commercials. Ferris eat your heart out.

-MJL

Tim Ferris

Four Hour Work Week
Book
Millionaire
Rich