A few days ago, in my post about outsourcing, I mentioned a book in passing called The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. A couple of people have asked me about the book so I thought I’d post a review of it.

As you probably already guessed, I bought the book because of the title – I mean who wouldn’t buy a book called that? It’s right up there with Think and Grow Rich and Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life as one of my all time favourite titles – but you know what they say about judging a book by its cover!

The book revolves around the premise that anyone can free up their time, and live a flexible and wealthy lifestyle by changing their mindset and using some simple strategies. Ferriss is a big advocate of Pareto’s principle (the 80/20 rule) and suggests using it ruthlessly to eliminate all unproductive tasks, while making those tasks which are highly productive as efficient as possible. He has some great ideas such as planning ‘mini retirements’ rather than working your whole life for a retirement at the end.

The book is split into 4 chapters – Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation. Definition covers dreaming and goal setting, freeing yourself from the ‘45 year plan’ of grinding away every day in the hope of enjoying your retirement. Elimination, as the name suggests, is all about putting an end to unproductive tasks. Ferriss suggests selective ignorance and a low information diet to clear the clutter and keep focussed on what really matters to drive your business forward. Automation is where he really gets into talking about outsourcing, getting your business systemised and non-reliant on your daily input and presence. Finally, Liberation is about been free of your job, business or location and able to travel, live anywhere, work anywhere and do the things that you really want to do.

Now I know that opinions have been very mixed about this book – you either love it, or hate it. I love it! In fact, it is the first and only book I ever read twice in a row – I got the end, and went right back to page one and read it all over again!

If you are currently in a J.O.B. and wanting to run your own business, or you do run your own business but feel like a slave to it (most business owners I know work much longer hours than their employees!) then I urge you to not only read this book, but to study it and put the theory into practice. Why work hard 8 hours a day, 6 days a week with 4 weeks off every year, just so you can enjoy a retirement which, let’s face it, is far from guaranteed? Life really is short, and you can either live it, or postpone it in the hope of enjoying it later…

Since reading this book my life truly has started to change. I’m looking at my businesses, and my lifestyle in a whole new way. I’m now systemising my business in an attempt to take myself out of the loop, to be less reliant on location and time constraints. Have I achieved a 4 hour work week? No, not yet! But I do feel that my business is heading in the right direction and I have my own ‘mini retirement’ planned for next year: a three month mountain bike adventure in the Rocky Mountains with my wife… and I won’t even be working 4 hours a week on that trip!

Check out Tim’s site at www.fourhourworkweek.com