If someone told you you could reduce your working hours to just 4 hours per week, AND make more money than you are currently working 40, 45, 50 hour weeks, would you believe them?
No, probably not.
The idea is so far-fetched it’s almost impossible to comprehend. But serial entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author Tim Ferris has done exactly that – and written a book about how you can do the same. When Ferris first initially proposed this concept, based on his own experience, most people assumed it was some sort of hoax, reducing your work hours from over 40 to a mere 240 minutes a week?! Madness.
But with the book now having sold over 2 million, been translated into 40 different languages, and with thousands of case studies of people implementing the strategies that Ferris talks about, it is impossible not to take the idea a bit more seriously…
The first thing to note, before diving into this concept, is that of course reducing your week to 4 hours takes real commitment and discipline, and those who have been successful at it are the ones who really committed to every aspect of Ferris’ teaching in order to see the full results.
It is also styled for those who are really NOT enjoying their current reality, so if you enjoy your work and are happy with your current setup then this dramatic shift might not be for you.
However the concept centres around a few key themes that are helpful and hugely beneficial for anyone wanting to be more organised, productive, and efficient.
Shall we dive into them?
Elimination
How many things are you doing that are actually non-essential? Trust us, it’s a tonne. We all do this. We like to feel busy and important, and therefore we say yes to everything and fill our day with tasks that are actually not 100% essential for our business, OR that could be outsourced, freeing up our very valuable time.
Do an audit of your daily, weekly and monthly tasks and have a SERIOUS look at what you could cut out if you really really had to. Sometimes it’s helpful to have someone look through this with you, and make you explain to them why it’s essential that you do certain tasks as often we convince ourselves a task is essential, but the reality is it could be outsourced – or cut completely.
Along with this, it’s important to make sure you’re using your working outs as efficiently as possible. Ferris says if you are given 30 days to put together a pitch proposal, it will take you 30 days. If you are given 24 hours, it will take you 24 hours. We fall into the trap of letting the task fit the time we have and so it is essential to break this habit in order to be truly productive.
The easiest way to do this is by solo-task (only do ONE task at a time, stop trying to multitask, while you might think you’re being more productive, studies show you are on average 40% less productive when you try to multitask), and setting yourself a strict time limit for when you need to be finished by.
Automation
The number of tools available to us now in the digital space to make our lives easier is greater than ever. Use them. Take a second look at your daily, weekly, monthly task list and see how many regular jobs you’re doing that could actually be automated. You’ll be surprised.
Ferris also recommends job batching, a strategy where you batch all of the same tasks into one allotted time, e.g do you check your email every hour? Stop. Allocate yourself 30 minutes twice a day, once in the morning once in the afternoon, and set a timer so that you know at the end of that 30 minutes to get out of your inbox and close the tab. Do you spend an hour each day creating content for Instagram? Set yourself one day a week where you create the content for the rest of the week and schedule it using a scheduling tool.
Liberation
Once you have eliminated and automated, it is essential that you use this newfound time to do things that are really important to you. As we’ve mentioned already, once you’ve created more free time for yourself, unless you allocate a new task or activity for that time it is inevitable that you will either slip back into old habits or you will make your current tasks fit that time.
If the reason you want to be more productive and efficient with your work is so that you can spend more time with your family, then commit that time to your family, add it to your calendar so your calendar is blocked and as a reminder to yourself, turn off your phone and laptop, and really give that time to your family. If you are trying to free up your time so you have more time to work on a new product for your business then again really commit that time to this new product. Block your calendar, put your phone in the other room, and set yourself clear, measurable goals so you can see the steps you’re taking to get to your end goal of creating your product.
The Four Hour Work Week is a brilliant concept (and a stellar read). It gives a very fresh perspective on our current working norms, and there is so much insight to be gained. As an entrepreneur anywhere in the world, it is so important to make sure we’re using our time wisely. For more information check out the Four Hour Work Week blog.