It is. In a digital world where the Center for Work-Life Policy reports the new "40-hour" week is 70 hours and growing, where the norm is time poverty, it's an inevitable shift. Millions of people are already spending income -- a renewable resource -- to reclaim fleeting time -- a non-renewable resource. So, what if there were an eBay for all of the tasks you didn't want to do, where people worldwide would compete to give you more time? What if you could get an MBA for $5 an hour to handle all of your menial personal chores and time-consuming business busywork? I have a veritable army working on my behalf, and someone who makes $30,000 per year could do the same. There are dozens of companies set up in places ranging from India and the Phillipines to Jamaica and Canada. It's the fastest evolving market I've ever seen, and it's only speeding up. Five years from now, most white-collar workers will have digital concierges of some type.
A lot of your lifestyle suggestions describe ways to limit the unnecessary expenditure of one's creative energy. Is creativity a scarce resource for most people?
Creativity is just an under-exercised faculty. It's always easier to choose from the standard menu of options than to think laterally, but the latter is definitely where rewards come faster. Take the red pill.
Is Inc. really the only business magazine you read every month?
It's the only magazine I tend to read cover-to-cover. I skim Internet Retailer magazine as well. Besides that, I get specific information when I need to act on it. Catching up beats keeping up every time.
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Recent Comments | 4 Total
January 19, 2008 at 2:38am by Phil Marcuson
I have read the book and found it to be a starting point and not and all encompassing how-to. Challenging the status quo is how many millionares come to existence and Tim is a definitely a challenger. Tim has plenty of golden nuggets in the book that make it easily worth the price (especially if you pick it up at a discount). Most intelligent business people will already know the concepts used as the foundation for achieving the 4 hour workweek; however, many will find it difficult to put them into action (especially employees). I, for one, am going to go for it slowly but surely.
January 26, 2008 at 2:12am by Maximillian Kaizen
Agreed with Phil, Tim's book is a great start & I've given the book as a gift to those in need too :-D
Far to many of us succumbed to the siren call of the never-ending work.week & slid so easily into workaholism that the 4HWW is a lifesaving shift in perspective.
Not a quick.fix sugar pill, but a cure at the cause that requires strategy and some measure of courage to effect.
April 17, 2009 at 4:18pm by Brian Schoenbaechler
Love the post. I also loved 4HWW. I just finished it a couple weeks ago. As an entrepreneur, I find it extremely difficult to get my work done in less than 12 hours per day. Mostly, because my employee's are always looking to me for leadership and direction. I do this for 8 hours and then spend the other four ours working on my work. I think one of the ways that Tim recommends to improve your hours worked is outsourcing. I could not agree more, because the company I own is a fulfillment outsourcing operation. If you need help fulfilling or distributing a product we can help. By outsourcing your fulfillment, you can focus more on growing your business and leave the 12 hour days to us. SBC Fulfillment can help you. We are a third party fulfillment company. We do e-commerce fulfillment, literature fulfillment, product fulfillment, warehousing, pick, pack, and ship. Check out our website at www.sbcfulfillment.com