The 4 Hour Work Week: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #37)

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich Tim Ferris notes by Kingston S Lim

Below are my personal notes of The 4 Hour Work Week. These highlights were what I used to write my personal development book, Wiser Next Week, a condensation of many different self improvement books.

Note this is the last entry in the Ultra Condensed Condensed Cliffnotes Series.

Entrepreneurship: shifting economic resources from an area of lower yield to higher yield

Finding a market before designing it is smarter than the reverse
The truth is most people prefer unhappiness over uncertainty, as uncertainty entails unlimited potential pain vs the fixed amount of pain in unhappiness
Those that avoid quitting their job tell themselves that their course will improve overtime. Pure hell forces action, anything less can be endured with rationalization

Ask yourself: Are you better off than you were a year ago? If not, you must be a catalyst for change

Worst case scenario is not failing, but accepting mediocrity

Think of money as monthly cash flow rather than a grand total. This unlocks the mindset of living how you want to live, rather than deferring life to achieve a lump sum.
- Determining How Much Cash Flow You Need:

Create a want list for 6 months and 12 months out
Circle the 4 most important ones that will bring you the most happiness
Determine its monthly cost
Multiply the sum by 1.3, this is your monthly required income
Define how you will earn that income

Elimination:
- What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it
- Pareto’s Law: 80% of outputs result from 20% of inputs
  - Which 20% of activities bring me 80% of my problems and concerns?
  - Which 20% of actions lead to 80% of my happiness?
  - Focus on the latter and forget the former

Most activities make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action
Parkinson’s Law: Tasks expand or shrink to the time allotted to them, if you want more done in less time, decrease the alloted time
Increased productivity is::
- Limiting tasks to the most important to decrease time spent (Pareto’s)
- Shorten work time to limit task to the important (Parkinson’s)
  - In other words, identify a few critical tasks (the One Thing, and schedule them with a tight deadline
Ask: If this is the one thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied?

Ask if it sounds reasonable, it’s hard for people to label it unreasonable

Delegate only what remains after eliminating inefficiencies

“Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.” Niccolo Machiavelli

Raising children: each child is given a virtual amount of cash for every hour of good behavior. The same amount is subtracted for breaking the rules. All goodies are purchased from that account, no balance, no goodies.

Differentiate between results driven activities (exercise) characterized by routine, and enjoyment driven activities (recreations, travel) characterized by variation.

If these brief notes peaked your interest in The 4 Hour Work Week, you can check it out on Amazon here.

And be sure to check out my book, Wiser Next Week.

All Previous Entries:

The Magic of Thinking Big: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #1

Millionaire Fastlane: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #2

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #3

30 Lessons for Living: Tried & True Advice from the Wisest Americans: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #4

Awaken the Giant Within: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #5

The End of Jobs: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #6

Slipstream Time Hacking: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #7

Think and Grow Rich: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #8

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #9