If there is one book that is one of my favorites and keeps motivating me to keep going, it is Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Work Week.

Timothy Ferriss was a workaholic for a long time. 80-hour weeks were part of his everyday life. But then he invented something grandiose, the MBA system (Management by Absence).

But what does Management by Absence mean?

If you search for the term on the Internet, you will quickly find that it is a technical term in HR. It’s about setting policies to reduce employee absenteeism, avoid disruptions and maximize productivity. It is important to set a balance.

And here I come to the first point of what I learned from the 4-Hour Work Week.

Focus on the essential

According to Tim, there are two laws to follow here: the Pareto Principle and Parkinson’s Law.

Pareto Principle = 80% of our outcome results from 20% of our input.

Parkinson’s Law = work expands in exactly the amount of time available to complete it.

Tim summarizes, the best approach to follow both rules. Limit our tasks to the most important 20% and cut our time to focus on the most relevant.

Put simply, focus on what is truly essential and banish unnecessary tasks. Do you need to attend that meeting knowing up front that you won’t even audition? Next time, just have a colleague give you a summary and use the newly gained time to accomplish the essential tasks. Meetings are there for decision-making, not problem identification.

It gets more interesting with the second point, which is what I learned from the book.

Automate everything

If there’s anything we need to realize it’s that time is precious.

In the book, Timothy Ferriss explains hiring an assistant, which can do non-relevant tasks. An online assistant can be hired inexpensively. For this purpose, many agencies should make your life easier. Important here is, never focus on one assistant. Some agencies provide a specialist for each case.

Eliminate tasks that you can easily assign to an assistant.

However, there are two golden rules to follow:

Any delegated task must be both time-consuming and well-defined.

Don’t delegate tasks that can be eliminated in advance anyway.

Even though I don’t want to advise anyone to start looking for an online agency to hire an assistant, the main point is clear. It’s about gaining more time to spend on creative and innovative work.

Link: How To Create A Passive Income

End your evening with a routine that works subconsciously

Never go to sleep without making the right requests to your subconscious. Prepare your body already for the next day. The evening routine is as important as a morning routine. There are different methods to prepare the subconscious mind already. It can be before going to bed, writing down the problems or tasks not done, so that the subconscious mind can work on them during the night.

Conclusion

The book is mainly about gaining more time in life and focusing on the essentials. Take a good look at your everyday life. What can I eliminate? What matters, what can I invest my time in to get the most out of it? Be effective, not efficient.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a little more about time management. The book is suitable for anyone who wants to make more of their time, earn the most income possible, and wants to be more location-independent.

Recommendation: Timothy Ferriss – How he became a self-made millionaire