The 4-Hour Workweek Summary Review | Book by Tim Ferriss

Book Summary of The Four Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

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Timothy Ferriss’ Perspective

Timothy Ferriss is an author, angel investor, TV host, and economic advisor. He has written five bestselling books, including The 4-hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and Tools of Titans. He has also had a TV series, The Tim Ferriss Experiment, and a TV show, Fear(less) with Tim Ferriss. In the latter, Tim has interviewed many people, including highly successful CEOs and sportspeople. One of Tim’s most famous guests was LeBron James. His podcast regularly tops the Apple podcast charts. Ferriss was listed by the New York Times as a Notable Angel Investor in 2015 for his successful early investments in Uber, Twitter, Facebook, and several other startups.

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Introduction

Imagine if you could afford to work only four hours a week. How would you spend your free time? The 4-Hour Workweek features practical tips on attaining this level of freedom. Here’s our top-level breakdown of the book by Tim Ferriss.

StoryShot #1: Have Greater Control Over Your 4-Ws

Everything we know about work and life is wrong. Many people are caught in a vicious loop trying to solve problems the same way. They work hard, save up, and dream of retiring rich. Instead, we should be focusing on a new life philosophy called the New Rich. Instead of focusing on being cash-rich before retirement, we should live a wealthy lifestyle with mini-retirements in-between. 

Our work lives should not make us lose control of the four W’s. These are:

• What we do
• When we do it
• Where we do it, and
• Whom we do it with

The more control you have over the four W’s, the greater the value of your financial resources. This philosophy favors freedom over earnings. A smaller take-home wage and more freedom is more impressive than a high wage and little free time. Indeed, the payoff is worth more when you use this time to better yourself.

StoryShot #2: Discover The New Rich

The New Rich are people who can work anywhere, take long breaks any time they want, and love what they do. They don’t dread the 9-5 workday. Many people may never realize this potential. We live in a bubble created by social norms, and we’re afraid of going against the grain.

You might be living in the same bubble if:

1. You focus on being busy instead of being productive.
2. You’re always waiting for that big payoff so you can retire or so you can start your dream business.
3. You dislike your work, but you have to do it because you need the income.
4. You’re always waiting for the right time to quit your job or go on your dream vacation.
5. You’re afraid of uncertainty and failure.

StoryShot #3: Face Your Fears and Be Comfortable in the Uncomfortable

Fear prevents many people from living their dreams. Why would you settle for an unhappy job when a little risk could bring you more freedom and riches? Some fears are nothing more than opportunities for self-improvement. For instance, you can’t promote your business if you’re uncomfortable expressing your ideas.

The key to a successful and fulfilling life is embracing your fears and challenging them. You need to leave your comfort zone and live every day facing your worst nightmares to get what you want. Here’s what you can do if fear of the unknown keeps you from doing what you need to do:

1. Define the worst that could happen
2. Hope for the best, and do it anyway

Condition yourself to overcome any challenge thrown your way. It’s the only way to achieve exceptional results. You can consider it to be your orientation to the world of entrepreneurship. There’s never a right time to pursue your best life and do what excites you.

Inaction is expensive. It leaves you physically and emotionally drained and wastes your earning potential.

StoryShot #4: Challenge Conventional Thinking and Redefine Your Goals

There’s always pressure to conform to society’s ideals of success. This does not get you anywhere, so you need to redefine your reality. Achieving greatness requires you to defy some social norms. Competition is fiercest when people strive for the same goals.

It’s hard to set bigger goals when you’re fighting to fit in with the crowd. Don’t expect to do things the same way as everyone else and get different results. The perfect system reset involves outlining what you want out of life and how to get there.

Determine what it will cost you to realize your dreams. Define the timelines and set your plans in motion. The following steps will help you set and meet bigger goals.

1. Create two timelines: one for six months and another for twelve months. In each one, list fifteen things you would do if there were no way you could fail. Your list should have five things you dream of having, being, and doing.
2. From your list of fifteen in each timeline, outline the four most important things.
3. Determine their cost and calculate your target monthly income in both timelines. You could break it down further into daily income.
4. Determine the first three steps you need to take in each of the four dreams. Starting with the 6-month timeline, execute the first course of action.
5. Small and well-calculated steps will lead you faster to your goals. Do not sit and wait to make your grand leap.

StoryShot #5: Build a Focused Mindset by Eliminating Trivia

You have already defined what you need to do to reach where you want to go. You don’t have to fill your life with busy work to give yourself a sense of motion. Start clearing blocks of time by identifying and delegating your most time-consuming chores.

Think about how you spend your time. Analyze all your activities and list them according to priority. You will get more work done in a day when you tick off the essential tasks. Pareto’s Law helps us plan for results and uncover action points. The 80/20 Pareto analysis asserts that:

• 80% of results come from 20% of our efforts
• 20% of our actions are responsible for 80% of our problems

Start being selective with your efforts and cut back on unproductive tasks. Using the Pareto principle, start investing in what delivers the 80%. Ferriss doubled his income by applying this principle. He focused on the five customers responsible for 90% of revenue and dropped the rest. It freed up his time and allowed him to find similar clients.

The other time management principle introduced in the book is Parkinson’s Law. It considers task relevance and complexity compared to the allotted execution time. Building on Pareto’s Law, Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time you have. If you give yourself target deadlines, you will shortens the time spent on important tasks.

You’re halfway towards your goals if you can tell when you’re unproductive, even though you look busy. The best way to create more time for the important tasks is to make two lists: a to-do list, and a not-to-do list.

Rating

Above all, The 4-Hour Workweek is a great read, and we give it a 4.4/5 rating based on this summary.

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial summary and analysis.

Editor’s Note

This article was first published in April 2021. It was updated in March 2022.

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