3 Profitable Lessons For Business Owners and Creatives From The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris
Welcome friends, today we will look at three profitable lessons for business owners and creatives from the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. (If you prefer to watch the video, please check it out here…)
My name is Lucas and welcome! If you’re not familiar, The 4 Hour Workweek is a blueprint for designing your dream lifestyle. Tim walk us through detailed steps on how to leave the typical 9-5 behind, let go of multi-tasking and be more productive by doing less.
In today’s video, I’d like to zero in on 3 key ideas that business owners and creatives can use to simplify their lives, work less and be more effective with their time. Let’s get to it..
Lesson #1: Stop Multi-tasking
Ever feel like there’s not enough time in the day? In Tim’s words,
“We are doing more to feel productive while accomplishing less”.
Since the 90’s, society has placed value on one’s ability to juggle multiple tasks but study after study proves that multi-tasking leads to decreased productivity and more errors. Our attention is being divided into a million different directions which means more interruptions and mediocre results.
The solution? Stop Multitasking - Do one thing at a time. Some call it single tasking, I like to call it being intentional with my energy and focus. By doing 1 task at a time, we produce better results and we get it done faster.
As Tim points out,
“Have 2 primary goals or tasks per day. Do them separately, from start to finish, without distractions.”
I resisted this for a few weeks, thinking, “how am I going to get everything done” but when a colleague mentioned her success with single tasking, I gave it a shot and was blown away at how how relaxed I felt and how much more productive I was.
Do one task at a time with no distractions. Try it for a week and see how you feel.
Lesson 2: Pareto’s Law (The 80/20 Rule)
Talk about being more productive by doing less, Tim share’s Pareto’s Law which is commonly known as the 80/20 rule and it’s pretty simple… 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts.
To explain it another way… 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of it’s products and services. Tim goes on the say,
“I began a dissection of my business and personal life through the filter of two questions: 1. Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems? and 2. Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?”
I immediately saw the potential in these two questions and applied them to my business and personal life. At the time, I was feeling pretty low so I asked, “what habits are contributing to my unhappiness?’”. I made a list and quickly realized every time I drank alcohol, I felt like shit. My brain was foggy, I was low energy and even a bit depressed.
I didn’t drink much but it definitely caused 80-90% of my problems, So I quit. Now, my mind is clear and sharp, I have a ton of energy and I’m much happier. I feel like I reversed in age. As for the business, I used to offer 5 different services but when I realized that 90% of the income came from just 3 things, I focused on those and closed the rest.
Now, it’s your turn.. Which products or services are producing 80-90% of your profits? Focus on those and remove the rest. When it comes to clients, some are a huge pain in the butt while others are super easy. Figure out which type of client is creating all of the problems and fire them.
Then, do the same for your personal life. Maybe 20% of your friends are creating 80% of the drama in your life - so, opt out for a while. And the 20% of people that inspire you, spend more time with them.
The goal is to identify the important and remove the unimportant. Once you do, you’ll have less overwhelm and stress.
Lesson 3: The Low Information Diet
In Tim’s words,
“Ignorance may be bliss but it’s also practical. Learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant or unactionable.”
The information is non stop.. Emails, texts, DM’s, stories, videos, photos, meme’s, podcasts, books And in Tim’s words,
“Most of it is time consuming, negative and irrelevant to your goals.”
The solution? Turn down the volume on the noise. By opting out of multitasking and using Pareto’s law to remove the unimportant, you’re well on your way to feeling happier and less stressed. Now take it a step further and turn off all the unnecessary streams of information.
I used to check my phone as soon as I woke up each morning. I also used to suffer from a tremendous amount of anxiety, that would usually debilitate me by mid day. So I did an experiment..
For a week, I powered off my phone before going to bed. In the morning, I’d leave it off for the first 2 hours I was awake. No devices, no laptop, tv or newspapers. Instead, i’d shower, do yoga, meditate and actually enjoy my breakfast.
Guess what happened..? My anxiety dissolved. I felt like I had just spent a week at a high end retreat only, this was something I could repeat every single day. I invite you to try it out for a week.
Use Pareto’s law to figure out which streams of info are causing the most overwhelm and turn them off for 1 week. The see how you feel.
This exercise in particular is how I came up with the “clear the financial clutter” exercise that I teach all of my Big Split students. When we are inundated with too many credit and debit cards, multiple bank accounts and different financial institutions, we make our finances a lot more complicated than they need to be.
And there you have it.. 3 extremely productive lessons from The Book The 4-Hour Workweek. Tim does a great job of breaking down these and so many other useful tips in details so be sure to give it a read!
Today’s lesson is a tiny fraction of what I share in the Big Split program so if you’d like to transform your finances in 1 week, click here to schedule a free 60 minute call with me.
Thank you for your time and energy. I’ll see you in the next one.
Lucas Z.