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TIM FERRISS IS among the most popular writers around on productivity, picking up skills, and escaping the 9-5 lifestyle.
His first bestseller, The Four Hour Workweek, came out of from his own experience of going from working long hours, seven days a week to figuring out how to run a business more efficiently.
But even for people not ready to take that step, Ferriss has some valuable tips for figuring how to get dramatically more done in less time, leaving more room to get ahead, relax, and do the things that make you happy.
1. If you’re spending 12 hours a day at your desk and still not finishing your work, it’s time to make a change.
It’s incredibly simple to fall into easy habits, or just do things the way you’re trained. Ferriss writes:
If everyone is defining a problem or solving it one way and the results are subpar, this is the time to ask, What if I did the opposite? Don’t follow a model that doesn’t work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are.
For example, Ferriss had huge success making sales calls only at 8:00-8:30 in the morning and from 6:00 to 6:30 at night because he got around “gatekeepers” and directly to executives.
2. Interest, energy and ability go up and down all the time. Trying to work through it when you’re miserable is unproductive.
The way many of our jobs and careers are planned leads to doing the same thing for hours, even years on end. It doesn’t account for the fact that people aren’t built to work that way.
Your interest and ability to do a particular job or task varies over time. It’s more effective to plan for it than to simply try to work through it, or spend unproductive hours staring at a screen.
Design your work day, and potentially even your career to take that into account.
3. Doing less is not necessarily being lazy.
Don’t give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.
Often, our workplace culture places way too much emphasis on face-time, late evenings, early mornings, and eating lunch at the desk as a sign of hard work and dedication.
Long hours show neither. There’s a big difference between being productive and being busy. Instead of measuring the amount of work you do, measure results in terms of the amount of time, and eliminate the less important things that take forever.
Eliminate work for work’s sake.
4. Stop putting hard choices off because of timing. It kills productivity.
There’s never going to be perfect time to quit a job, ask for more responsibility, or take on a risky new project.
Waiting for the perfect moment is simply a delaying tactic that keeps you preoccupied. Pro and con lists serve the same function. Take the leap and course correct as needed. The consequences are rarely as bad as you imagine.
5. Ask people for forgiveness instead of permission.
Waiting for someone else’s approval is the easiest way to delay or avoid something you don’t really want to do. That way, you can blame inaction or failure on them instead of yourself.
And if you do want to do it, but think someone will deny you, just go for it. Unless the damage is catastrophic, you’ll be able to fix things or apologise. People are hesitant to try new things, but once the ball’s rolling, they’ll rarely stop it.
6. Emphasise what you’re good at rather than trying to correct weakness.
The majority of people are better than average at a few things, and pretty bad at others. Trying to improve weaknesses will only lead to small improvements. You might move in the direction of average, or mediocre.
But focusing on your strengths makes you exceptional in one area, which is far easier to leverage. Do what you’re best at rather than wasting time on repairing things.
7. Figure out how to use stress rather than letting it make you less able and confident.
Bad stress, like a yelling boss or destructive criticism is definitely negative.
But without a certain level of stress, you’re unlikely to get motivated. Examples of good stress include role models that push you, and taking the sort of risks that expand your comfort zone.
People who avoid all stress end up never taking a risk and failing.
8. Don’t choose unhappiness over uncertainty. Define the worst case scenario to change this.
Unhappiness is certainly unpleasant. But uncertainty is scary. Most people will opt for the former, and never follow through on resolutions.
You just replay everything that can go wrong, and don’t end up doing anything due to pessimism, fear, and insecurity.
An easy way to overcome this is to precisely define the exact worst that can happen if you radically change your work life. You could get fired, struggle to pay your mortgage, or have to sell your car.
But when these scenarios are defined instead of vague fears, you’ll usually realize how unlikely they are, and be able to make concrete plans to avoid them.
9. Watch out for fear disguised as optimism.
One of the biggest ways people avoid change is with false optimism, the idea that things will get better over time. If you’re miserable now, it’s likely you’re using optimism as an excuse for inaction.
Are you better off than you were a week, month, year ago? If not, things are unlikely to change without major action on your part.
The author of the Four-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss. He’s clearly onto something. (Image: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer).
10. Set unrealistic and hugely ambitious goals.
Most people are relatively insecure, and go after “reasonable” goals. That means the competition is fiercest at the low end. Wildly ambitious, impossible to achieve goals are easier because less people really truly try for them.
Average and uninspiring goals will only fuel you through one or two roadblocks. Unrealistic goals are an adrenaline boost.
If the payoff’s average, your effort will be too.
11. Forget about time management and the “results by volume” approach.
Many time management tips are about learning to get more done in the day. The real focus should be on doing less.
People tend to do lots and lots of busy work to avoid the difficult and critical stuff. A better strategy is to do the difficult stuff right away and eliminate everything else.
Doing something unimportant well does not make it important, neither does the fact that it takes a long time.
Being great at answering email isn’t necessarily a good thing. It means you’re spending too much time on a task that isn’t all that productive. Focus on things that are effective — that get you closer to your goal in the quickest way possible.
12. Use the 80/20 rule: 80 per cent of the results come from 20 per cent of the time and effort.
Working incredibly long days but still feeling like you have work to do is a sign that you’re doing something wrong.
Ask these two questions, inspired by economist Pareto, to get back on track, Ferris writes:
“What 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?”
“Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?”
That helps you identify tasks or customers or relationships that you should just drop in order to focus on what makes you productive and successful.
13. Give yourself less time to do everything.
In addition to Pareto, use Parkinson’s law: a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted to complete it.
Basically, you take longer with everything because you’re expected to be at your desk, at minimum, from 9-5. If you have 8 hours to do something, you’ll take all 8 hours for something that can be done in less time. You end up with better quality due to higher focus.
Staying at your desk forever doesn’t mean you’re actually getting the job done. Image: Shutterstock
14. Master the art of not finishing things and interrupting people.
Everyone’s made the mistake of focusing on tasks that are poorly thought out, difficult to execute, and won’t result in much gain. Sometimes they’re unavoidable. More often than not, if you make that case aggressively to someone that they’re simply not worth the time, you can get out of the task.
The same goes for meetings and phone calls that drag on forever. It’s better to be rude than waste hours a week being polite. Never schedule meetings without a defined agenda and set end time, and get up and walk away when you need to.
15. Some things are just time consuming and repetitive. Do them all at the same time.
Eventually, unanswered emails, forms you haven’t filled out, and other time consuming logistic tasks will pile up if you don’t get too them. They have to be done.
But the worst thing you can do is interrupt more important tasks to take care of these things as they come in. Do them all at the same time in short, intense bursts.
- Max Nisen and Aimee Groth
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I would have thought it’s fairly clear what’s happening, the government put together a task force of our best and brightest in the area of public health in order to lead the response to the crisis and presumably is fairly hands off in allowing expert discourse and accepting the resulting recommendations.
If these lads and lasses don’t know what to do, a politician certainly won’t and I think it’s been the proper approach to take. Sounds simple, but clearly not everyone did or is doing it.
@Sean Fahey: Fair point.
All the electorate wants is to be told by the politicians that an end is in sight and they have some kind of plan to phase us into a new normal.
@Sean Fahey: A very intelligent post with a bit of thought behind it . Good comment.
@Sean Fahey: I think they’ve all done a cracking job. They want everything to be released to try and tear it down unfortunately. I’m all for disclosure and transparency but looking for the information to try to find something to undermine them with is a shame. Stay home and stay safe everyone
@Sean Fahey: If everything was clear they would not be asking questions
We need a clear plan on exiting lockdown. Worrying studies on IgG immune response means in reality a successful vaccine may be a long way off, some experts have 3-4 years as an aggressive timeline. We have to restart the economy, the virus has little effect on healthy under 50s, only 3 deaths in Sweden thus far.
Cocoon the old, strict visiting in nursing homes and hospitals the ‘new normal ‘. While the healthy need to return to work quickly or the recession coming will kill far more people indirectly ,mortgage stress and no income will increase suicide 10 fold.
@Ruairi O Gorman: well said
@Ruairi O Gorman: but what if the healthy under 50′s start dying? Shall we say drop the age limit to under 20′s as whose eligible to go out. There’s plenty fit an healthy over 50′s incase you haven’t noticed in your little world
@Ruairi O Gorman: Cocoon the old? How about some of the responsibility for protecting the over 70s be put on us younger people too? It’s entirely unfair to burden them with all of the responsibility and insist that they remain within their homes while other people can get out for exercise. The Government need to introduce slots in the day when the rest of us stay in, and the over 70s can get exercise and look after their mental health.
@Ruairi O Gorman: how would you like to be cocooned plenty of people over 70 are healthy and get daily exercise.
@Kevin Farrell: , the lethality of the virus increases dramatically for people over 75 with underlying conditions this is the factual evidence. There is no magical solution that will change that short term.Another fact is our exchequer is hemorrhaging liquidity at a speed never seen before this cannot continue.
@Ruairi O Gorman: Curious as to why you quote 3 in Sweden. The UK has had more.
@NotMyIreland: because it suits his argument also the 3-4 years for a vaccine when others say by the end of the year
@bmul: While 3-4 years might be the longer end of the predictions I think it’s true to say that by the end of this year is wildly optimistic. The bulk of the experts see 18 months as a reasonable timeline, and Ruairi is correct when he mentions the issues immunologists are facing with this particular vaccine – they aren’t straightforward to make and may not have the efficacy we need in the early vaccines that come out. There have been lots of problems with vaccines within this class of viruses before now, and barring a major breakthrough, the problems might continue and seriously delay things.
@Anthony Whelan: what if is not the argument.
@Ruairi O Gorman: 100% correct, I think as this goes on we will need a broader skill set making the decisions to factor in all aspects of health, society and the economy. It would be crazy to think that this virus is going to go away anytime soon but on the other hand we can’t keep borrowing indefinitely to keep everyone at home. It’s early yet but the powers that be are going to have to take a wider range of advice at some stage, so that they can plan for some sort of exit strategy down the road.
@Mary Oliver: I might even say that a lot of over 70s would be healthier than some of the younger generation, as they have all grown up in an era of physically working hard, no computers, and a lot would have walked most places or even on bicycles. So they could have a better set of lungs than some 20 somethings around today, and before I get pulled up, I’m not generalising about all the young population of today, but a lot.
@Ruairi O Gorman: sorry bud but I should be running Tomorrow morning, 10k run with a group that consists of primarily o/70’s….They are cocooned while groups of brats are sawntering in public thinking they are immune while the o/70’s are now suffering from depression and mental health issues…YOUR ECONOMY WILL RECOVER BUT THE O/70’S WONT AS MENTIONED…
@Barrsball Rebel: that’s your choice , nature doesn’t take have a moral compass , the fact remains that an over 75 has a 100 fold chance of dying if morbidity occurs over a teenager.
@Anthony Whelan: ‘what if’ arguments are weak.
@Ruairi O Gorman: “the virus has little effect on healthy under 50s”.
Uhhu, then kindly explain why I know off a 32 year old and a 36 year old ( no underlying illnesses, both in Ireland ) who died from covid. Sweden is a clusterfu*ck and its already starting to show in the stats.
With that said, yes we need to start, but the plan will never be clear. It will be trial and error and backwards and forward. Welcome to the new reality.
@Ruairi O Gorman: the fact remains that a large population of those that are sadly departing are those in nursing homes…unfortunately, there lies the problem and the HSE/DEPT OF HEALTH are scrambling to combat this issue..
@Ruairi O Gorman: 100%n we cannot all stay at home forever ther has to be a better plan some of us have to work.
If they open the building sites it’s game over. They will have no control and this will spread across the country again. I’d imagine the CIF and developers are loading the pressure on FG. We will see how strong a leader Leo really is or is he all spin.
@Edwardson Mike: why are you picking building sites specifically? Do you work on one or have any first hand experience of how they work ? I would imagine a factory indoor environment would be much worse, I was working between 2 building sites as a sub contractor before the lock down and a lot of measures were put in place and were bern adhered to.
@Bernard Mc Grath: Sorry I’d have put them all in the same bracket. I’m just concerned that the possibility of 200k people travelling together by car, bus or rail could quickly worsen the spread of this disease. It’s extremely hard to cover everything you’d like to say in one comment. I also feel the construction workers health and their families health should be valued as much as the school children and their teachers. If you open the sites and factories you may as well open the schools and non essential shops.
@Edwardson Mike: Spot on,I work on a major Dublin construction site,we have just come through a very wet,cold winter where the migrant construction workers and Irish workers
are getting paid 12e an hour,were we issued with proper wet weather gear,proper footwear….were we F**k,treated like dogs by both subbies and main contractors,voiceless,hidden behind fancy site hoardings,completely abandoned by the CIF and SIPTU.
The Galway tent greed,the old nod and a wink is very much alive and well when it come to the welfare of construction workers,that won’t change during this pandemic.
@joe oneill: I’ve years of experience on sites even clocking in and out you could have 100-200 crammed in waiting on the clocking machines. Most jobs on sites require two or more men despite what some say. Fit-outs require several men working in the same close proximity. Anyone who says anything else is desperate to get back to work for financial reasons or talking nonsense.
@Edwardson Mike: so true,last site I worked on had a finger print scan for clocking in,was any hand sanitizer provided….errr no.The drying room….a couple of hundred lads changing in cramped conditions,jesus wept.Steelfixers walking around with gaffer tape wrapped around their boots in an effort to keep their feet dry,scaffolders wearing agricultural wellingtons in an effort to keep there feet dry and yet folks like Tom Parlon can go on the national airways and tell the public construction workers will be looked after during this pandemic,we are lucky to get a set of gloves at the best of times.
3rd world conditions.
@joe oneill: Tom Parlon needs to spend a month on a site straight after this crisis. I’ve no doubt he’d be like Boris Johnson quickly changing his opinion.
They know more cleared the testing back log then the man on the moon or maybe they did and in a week managed to now have another one ,they more I listen to them the more I’m staring to not trust a word out of there mouth
Dr Tony doing a great job just look across the pond Who would you want
@Ct: in the top ten worst countries in the world in terms of deaths per million of population.
Politicising a global pandemic…shame on Kelly and Martin!
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: hahahaha!! FG have done the Lions share of politicising this issue! I’m.notnfond of Kelly but he was 100% correct!
@Paddy Lambe: True. FG is the party that only recently said they wouldn’t be part of the next government but are now saying that they will go into coalition with FF, the party that before the election, said they wouldn’t share power with FG.
I’d like more clarity on testing for general population before relaxing restrictions; also while GPs can cite COVID19 as cause of death where a swab hasn’t been taken – why aren’t swabs taken as a matter of procedure, to definitively rule it in or out?
@Lilian Nolan: Do we know what the daily numbers for testing is now?
The whole thing is falling apart , and they don’t. Have the resources to force people to stay in , plus the way they are counting and doing stats at this stage is a shit show
@Karllye kripton: why should they have to force people to stay indoors? Surely intelligent adults can understand the reasons why they should stay in and can make that decision for themselves. Perhaps you should volunteer to do the stats for them seeing that you know so much about it. You should try looking for something positive and cease putting up such negative comments
Mr Kelly had a habit of not taking minutes at meetings when he was minister, never forget
A vaccine has never had unlimited funds to scale, factory’s already built before the vaccines, and every scientist every country, every lab in the World working on it. I reckon many Candidates will become available after September. In say that the world wide scrutiny the “vaccines” will have will be tremendous and given the fact the most frail should get it first a lot of uncertainty will arise especially from the joyless Irish mainstream TV media who are terrifying people at the moment.
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