An interruption is anything that prevents the start-to-finish completion of a critical task.The 3 main offenders:<ol><li>Time wasters. Things that can be ignored with little or no consequence</li><li>Time consumers. Repetitive tasks or requests that need to be completed but often interrupt high-level work</li><li>Empowerment failures. When someone needs approval to make something small happen.</li></ol>How to fix:<ol><li>Create systems that limit your availability. For example, replacing a meeting with a brief email.</li><li>Batch activities. Answer all emails in bulk.</li><li>Set autonomous rules to prevent creating a decision bottleneck.</li></ol>

Interruptions: What are they and How to Fix them?

Most information is time-consuming and unnecessary. You should be critical with what you look at, read, or watch daily.The low-information diet:<ul><li>Go on a one-week media fast immediately: no newspapers, magazines, news websites, television, and unnecessary web surfing.</li><li>Only consume information for something immediate and important.</li><li>Practice the art of nonfinishing. If you’re reading a poorly written book/article, don’t continue to read it.</li></ul>

The Low-Information Diet

<ol><li>Quitting is not permanent: It’s always possible to pick up your chosen career path with a different company at a later date.</li><li>You will be able to pay the bills: You can get a new stream of income before you quit your job or eliminate most of your expenses temporarily and live off your savings for a short while.</li><li>Health insurance and retirement funds won't cease if you quit: Do some research and transfer your 401(k) or similar to another company.</li><li>Quitting won't ruin your resume: If you quit to do something interesting, this will often make you more attractive to employers in the long run.</li></ol>

Debunking the fear of quitting

Moving out of the country or changing jobs are hard. Tim Ferriss recommends asking these questions to manage your fear:<ul><li>What is your absolute worst-case scenario?</li><li>What could you do to repair the damage if this came to pass?</li><li>What are the temporary and permanent outcomes and benefits of more probable scenarios?</li><li>If you were fired today, how could you take care of your finances?</li><li>What are you putting off due to fear?</li><li>What is the cost (emotionally, financially, and physically) of postponing action?</li><li>What are you waiting for?</li></ul>

Questions to Overcome Fear

What you do is far more important than how you do it. Efficiency is important, but it’s redundant unless it’s being applied to the right things.To be productive:<ul><li>Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income (Pareto’s Law: 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs)</li><li>Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law).</li></ul>

Forget about Time Management

To live a free life Tim Ferriss proposes working remotely. He advocated it before it was cool. His advice: <ul><li>Practice environment-free productivity. Attempt to work for two hours in a cafe before proposing a remote trial.</li><li>Quantify current productivity. Document your work efforts.</li><li>Demonstrate remote work productivity. Rack up some proof that you can kick ass without constant supervision.</li><li>Practice the art of getting past “no”. “What would I need to do to .... (desired goal)?”</li><li>Put your employer on remote training wheels. Propose Monday or Friday at home.</li></ul>

Replace Office Work with Remote Work

"The New Rich are defined by a more elusive power than simple cash—unrestricted mobility."

Stress and Misery comes from a feeling of helplessness. By focusing on the “W’s you control”, you can create a life that is more fulfilling and less stressful.<ol><li>(W)hat you do</li><li>(W)hen you do it</li><li>(W)here you do it</li><li>(W)ith whom you do it</li></ol>

The W’s you control

Tim Ferriss proposes that by outsourcing tasks that you don't enjoy or that are not essential to your goals, you can focus on the things that are most important to you. How to do it:<ul><li>Get a remote personal assistant to learn how to give orders.</li><li>Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined.</li><li>Refine rules and processes before adding people.</li><li>Only delegate time-consuming and well-defined tasks.</li></ul>

Outsourcing Life

Tim Ferriss outlines a process for escaping the 9-to-5 & living a fulfilling life:<ul><li>Define your ideal lifestyle. What do you want your life to look like? Probably it's not about being rich but sick at an old age.</li><li>Eliminate the unnecessary. Identify & eliminate all of the things that are taking up your time and energy but that are not essential.</li><li>Automate everything you can. So you can free up your time for more important things. For example: email, your finances, and even your social media.</li><li>Live and work anywhere. It's possible to work from anywhere in the world. SE Asia is beautiful & cheap.</li></ul>

The 4 Hour Work Week Formula

<ol><li>Retirement is the worst-case-scenario insurance.</li><li>Alternating between periods of rest and activity is essential.</li><li>Focus on being productive instead of busy.</li><li>The timing is never right. Waiting for ‘someday’ means that you will take your dreams to the grave.</li><li> Ask for forgiveness, not permission.</li><li>Emphasize strengths. Don’t fix weaknesses.</li><li>When things are done to excess, they often take on the characteristics of their opposites.</li><li>Money alone is not the solution. We use not having enough money as a scapegoat for not working out what we want out of life.</li><li>Relative income is more important than absolute income.</li></ol>

Surprising Rules for Success

Don't let workplace stress get you! Tips for a healthier work-life without burnout.

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Problem Solving

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Health

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Communication

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Personal Development

Managing Work Stress

A now classic book that jumpstarted Tim Ferriss's career.

What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: “I race motorcycles in Europe.” “I ski in the Andes.” “I scuba dive in Panama.” “I dance tango in Buenos Aires.” He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now. Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you: • How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want • How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs • How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist • How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements" • What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income • How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair • What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks • How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet • What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are • How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off • How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office You can have it all—really. From the Hardcover edition.

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Productivity

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Money & Investments

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Time Management

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Books

What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: “I race motorcycles in Europe.” “I ski in the Andes.” “I scuba dive in Panama.” “I dance tango in Buenos Aires.” He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now. Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you: • How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want • How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs • How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist • How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements" • What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income • How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair • What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks • How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet • What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are • How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off • How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office You can have it all—really. From the Hardcover edition.

Tim Ferriss is author of three #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. He is also a start-up advisor specializing in positioning, PR, and marketing (Uber, Evernote, etc.). When not damaging his body with abusive sports, he enjoys chocolate, bear claws, and Japanese animation.

TIM FERRISS

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