The Silent Avatar Speaks

I wrote in a previous blog about "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferris. Intrigued by what this author had to say I managed to obtain a copy from my local library so I could delve deeper into his "techniques" for changing lifestyle and becoming one of the New Rich (NR). He certainly has some eye-opening ways to get to a 4 hour work week, not the least is abiding by "Pareto's Law" and "Parkinson's Law". Pareto's Law is popularly called the 80/20 principal. That is 80% of results come from 20% of effort and time, and Parkinson's Law which dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. I've heard of both of these laws before. Whilst undertaking management training I was often reminded by my mentor "work expands to meet the time allocated". And I saw the reality of this many times. When you are in business for yourself we alone are responsible for implementing Pareto's Law and Parkinson's Law. The 4 Hour Work Week is a journey identifying where you are wasting time, how to eliminate time wasting tasks, and how to be more productive towards reaching your goals. The stumbling block which most of us face though is fear. Fear of actually letting go of the 9-5 work week, and pursuing the experience which we yearn for. The reader is asked to complete various exercises throughout the book, to focus where you are putting your attention, and evaluate whether your focus is getting you where you want to be. One of the first "Aha moments" came when Timothy stated he only checks emails once a week and limits emails to an hour every Monday. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, but when I was reminded about Pareto's Law, I immediately vowed to eliminate all of the time wasting emails I read. So committed I was to re-gaining some of my time back to use towards reaching my goals I immediately put down the book, logged on to my PC, and started to unsubscribe from my email lists. I would estimate that I would be on at-least a hundred mailing lists. All of the lists I have subscribed to over the past 2 years meant I was getting a ton of email every day. Of course I tried to read them all, but found I was falling behind every time I focused on what I needed to do rather than read the emails! If you want to see a list of who I unsubscribe from click here. You can imagine how much time I freed up to focus on my 4 Hour Workweek! More about my journey and how you to can commit to a 4 hour work week in coming posts.

Tags: Business Tips //