The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is one of those books that leaves you thinking, ‘Why don’t they teach you this stuff in school?!’ If you are interested in lifestyle design or just want to learn how to be more productive in what you do – then you need to read this book!

I must say that I don’t read as many books as I used to since I started blogging. However that being said, I have read some fantastic books recently and thought I would share my thoughts on them with you from time to time.

Before I Start The Book Review:

I have just set up an account with Audible to get one full audio book a month for just $7.49 for the first three months.

Each audio book that I download will be reviewed here – and the first one will be The Referral Engine by John Jantsch – which retails for $26.44 (and i get it for $7.49!).

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The Four Hour Work Week

The Four Hour Work Week has quickly become my favourite book! Since purchasing it about 4 months ago – I am currently reading it again for the 3rd time. Each time I learn so much more and it definitely is a book that I recommend you put on your ‘to read’ list.

Introduction To The Four Hour Work Week

The important thing to remember while reading this book is that it is a book full of ‘concepts’. A lot of people read this book and instantly disregard it as impossible, improbable and label Tim Ferriss a scam – but the value is in the large amount of unique ideas that you can put to work in your life!

In the Four Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss uses the acronym DEAL for the four main chapters of his book. The acronym DEAL stands for: Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

Definition

This first section of the book is all about finding out what you want and looking past what society expects of you – and what is considered normal!

It is in this section that he first introduces two different types of people, The ‘New Rich’ whose currency si not money – but time and mobility, and the ‘Deferrers’ or those who save everything to enjoy life after they retire.

My favourite parts in this section are:

• His Thought Comparison of The ‘New Rich’ and the ‘Deferrers’
• The Section On Conquering Fear
• Getting Unrealistic!

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Elimination

Definition is all about crushing a mindset that has been drilled into us since we were born – and new mindsets mean that things need to go. The elimination section of this book is all about productivity and effectiveness – and has a huge focus on Parento’s Law (better know as the 80/20 principle). I love this section because it is so simple – but the majority of us don’t put it into action. If the majority of our results come from a small portion of our effort – why are we not focusing on that which is working, instead of beating a dead horse? And if 20% of our customers are causing 80% of our problems – why are we just ditching them to focus on the 80% of customers that require no addition effort?

My favourite parts in this section are:

• Parent’s Law – 80/20 Principle
• The Low Information Diet

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Automation

Automation is the one section that hit me hardest. As bloggers we have a business model that requires us to continually work on our businesses – unless you build a multi author blog(Like FamousBloggers).

Now while I am not saying that blogging is a bad business model – or that I am ditching StandOutBlogger. But this section did challenge me to look at how I am working online and to look at automating my business and life as much as possible.

A huge section of this chapter is focused on outsourcing jobs overseas and he talks about the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. Outsourcing is something that I have been doing quite a bit lately – and the company that I recommend is oDesk!

This section was also a big inspiration for my latest project WebsiteBuildr which will be completely automated (and for once – not include a blog!).

My favourite parts in this section are:

• His Rules On Outsourcing
• Finding The Muse
• Management By Absence

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Liberation

The reason that automation is so important is because the final chapter in the book is all about Liberation! This section focuses on removing your location dependence and escaping the restrictions that most jobs have.

I love his concept of mini-retirements (which is 3-6 month ‘holidays’ overseas – regularly throughout your life, instead of one big retirement at the end) so much that my wife and I are currently planning one ourselves (read my fear of failure post for the details).

After reading his section of normal holidays, which he calls ‘binge holidays’  (because you try and cram so much into a little time) it really struck me how ineffective and tiring this type of vacation actually is. The problem is, that because most people are tied to where they work – they can’t escape for much longer than a couple of weeks.

My favourite parts in this section are:

• The Whole Section On Mini-Retirements
• His Thoughts On Filling The Void

At the end of each chapter Tim Ferriss also includes a list of different tools that will help you start putting these concepts into practice.

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

My Final Thoughts

If you are skeptical about these types of books – you are going to hate this book (this is definitely a ‘love it or hate it’ type of book. However, personally I found it to be full of thought provoking concepts and was a massive ‘mindset changer’ for me.

I am a huge quote fan, and this book is riddled with some of the best (which was an added bonus). So if you are tired of feeling like no one relates with your ideas – I think you will love this book.

Definitely comes highly recommended!

>> Grab This Book On Audible for just $7.49 (And listen while you work!)