4. Limit E-mail
Consumption
"Check e-mail twice per day,
once at 12:00 noon or just prior
to lunch, and again at 4:00 P.M.
Complete your most important
task before 11:00 A.M. to avoid
using lunch or reading e-mail as
a postponement excuse."
- Read more in Chapter 7
Photo by: Somewhat Frank
6. Photo by: Sleepy Valley
Pareto principle: The 80/20 rule
"Out of more than 120
wholesale customers, a mere
5 were bringing in 95% of the
revenue...
I went from chasing and
appeasing 120 customers to
simply receiving large orders
from 8, with absolutely no
pleading phone calls or e-mail
haranguing. My monthly
income increased from
$30K to $60K in four
weeks and my weekly hours
immediately dropped from
over 80 to approximately 15."
- Read more in Chapter 5
7. Use a Virtual Assistant
“Indian and Chinese VAs, as well
as most from other developing
countries will run $4-15 per
hour, the lower end being
limited to simple tasks and the
higher end including the
equivalent of Harvard or Stanford
M.B.A.s and Ph.D.s.”
- Read more in Chapter 8
Photo by: Giorgio Montersino
8. 10 Steps to the 9-to-5
1. Use a pre-planned project or emergency (family issue,
personal issue, relocation, home repairs, whatever) that
requires you to take one or two weeks out of the office.
2. Say that you recognize you can't just stop working, and that
you would prefer to work instead of take vacation days.
3. Propose how you can work remotely and offer, if necessary,
to take a pay cut for that period (and that period only) if
performance isn't up to par upon returning.
4. Allow the boss to collaborate on how to do it so that he or
she is invested in the process.
5. Make the two weeks "off" the most productive period you've
ever had at work.
Photo by: dan paluska
9. 10 Steps to the 9-to-5
6. Show your boss the quantifiable results upon returning,
and tell him or her that — without all the distractions,
commute, etc. — you can get twice as much done.
Suggest two or three days at home per week as a trial for
two weeks.
7. Make those remote days ultra-productive.
8. Suggest only one or two days in the office per week.
9. Make those days the least productive of the week.
10.Suggest complete five-day-per-week mobility — the boss
will go for it.
- Read more in Chapter 12
Photo by: dan paluska
10. 6 REASONS
TO BUY THE
*NEW* 4HWW
SIX TIPS / CASE STUDIES
FROM THE LATEST EDITION
11. ESCAPE THE 9-TO-5
“I work for a Silicon Valley tech company (I'm a software developer), and used
concepts from The 4HWW to work remotely from August of '08 until January of
'09. I went to Portugal, Europe, Spain, Sweden, and Norway, surfing and
snowboarding my brains out. The best part: I came home with three times
as much money in the bank than I would have had if I continued
the normal 9 to 5.
I spent 4 months prior to departure being sure to never be at my cube, but always
be just around the corner. I made a point to ALWAYS be available on Instant
Messenger. When people would walk over to my cube and look for me, they
would see I was somewhere else, then hop online and ask "Where are you?" My
response: "Just down the hall in the cafeteria..." or "Just down the block at the
coffee shop..." After 2 months of this, a magical thing happened: people just looked
for me via Instant Messenger and stopped dropping by my desk all together.
That allowed me to be 6,000 miles away without anyone noticing.” - B.Williamson
12. BRING THE KIDS!
“I quit my job, sold my house, and went camping for 3 months with two kids under 2.5 years
old and a pregnant wife. We (very slowly) drove the S.E. coast of Australia, from Sydney to
Adelaide.
With the complete clarity of mind that comes from being in a field with your family and no
immediate worries, I put into action a plan that I had been tinkering with for 12 months. I
bought a wireless internet dongle and created an info product for electrical engineers, and
wrote some software to go with it. Managed this by: (a) going on an info diet, (b) working
9pm-midnight in a campsite with no other distractions, (c) outsourcing everything that I
would find difficult or time consuming (like the tricky programming stuff and the illustrations
for my book). After about 4 weeks, I had an automated informational
website that had replaced half of my full-time income, requiring less than
4 hours per week to maintain.
The original plan was to arrive in Adelaide and get a J.O.B. But with my passive income, I
decided to simply grow my new business and am currently very close to replacing 100% of
my previous income. It feels f&*#ing brilliant. Now we plan to travel the world slowly until
the kids are ready for primary school... Who says kids hold you back?!” - F. Peacock
13. START UP A BUSINESS
“The fastest way to market with a product idea is:
1. Register a dot-com. Get hosting from dathorn.com [a cheap reseller account, like
www.domainsinseconds.com].
2. With 2 clicks, set up a Wordpress blog. Apply a theme to it.
3. Add your content and a "Buy Now" button.
The ‘Buy Now’ button links to a page where customers can enter their email address, phone
number, etc. The user then clicks ‘Continue’ to a PayPal button. This automatically emails me
their details, but then shows the user a message stating that the link to PayPal is currently not
working. This determines how many sales I would have achieved.
I use Google ads to drive traffic, and calculate theoretical ROI (ideally using Google
analytics). If, after a week or two, I can see a positive ROI that's worth my effort, I create or
outsource the creation of the product (e-mag, PDF, whatever). I set it all up with a working
link to PayPal, then send a message to the users who already tried to buy. Within hours, the
cash starts to roll in.” - M. Schmidt
14. PUT EMAIL ON HOLD
“You've suggested people check email only a few times a
day. Here's a twist:
I time the email to arrive when it's convenient
for me.
In Outlook, you can delay email delivery to any time of
day. For example, when I return emails at 3 PM, I don't
want my staff instantly zinging me responses or clarifying
questions. So I hit ‘Send,’ but it's delayed to arrive later in
the evening, or at 8 a.m. when my employees arrive the
next day.
This is how email was meant to be! It's mail, not a chat
service.” - J. Larranaga
15. BE A ‘MEDICAL TOURIST’
“Why not combine a mini-retirement with medical geo-
arbitrage and finance your trip with the savings?
I lived in Thailand for 4 months and got a root canal treatment
and crowns for a third of the price that it costs in Australia.
There are many up-market clinics set up for expatriates and
health travelers in Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Goa, etc. with
English speaking dentists. And in Europe, many people go to
Poland or Hungary.
I combine my travels with annual dentist checkups,
and the savings often finance my airfare. Even
between developed countries there are significant cost
differences.” - Anonymous
16. LIVE ON YOUR TERMS
“As an employee, I wanted to first achieve liberation with a remote work
arrangement. Despite several failed attempts, I persevered (great lesson in
negotiating) and was granted the opportunity to work remotely. This
changed everything. I went from 9+ hours of work a day with weekly
work related travel to 4 hours a week, 1 week of travel per
month, and managed to get a $10,000 raise and deliver 2X
the productivity in my job. I spend my newly found time pursuing
my passion for music, theater, and fitness. I am currently training for my
second marathon.
Reality is truly negotiable, and now my reality is that I can spend endless
hours enjoying the company of my father, who waited twenty years until
he retired to enjoy the freedom that I have found in less than 24 months
after reading The 4-Hour Work Weekweek.” - I. Barron
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