By Cheryl Rushing

Title:  The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content
by Timothy Ferriss

I’m reading the Kindle edition.

One of the great things about the Kindle (besides being able to carry 400+ books around in my purse) is that you can download a sample of book before you buy it.  It’s usually the first few pages or first chapter, but a good writer can get you hooked in that amount of time.

Timothy Ferriss definitely got me hooked.  I wanted to know how I could have a life like his.  I was hungry for someone to tell me life could be different from my 40 hour workweek at a job I’m not always crazy about.  That’s his message, and he sells it well.

I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I have not finished reading the book.  According to my Kindle I’m only 33% done with the book, but I can tell you what I think so far: it’s an interesting concept.

Ferriss gives you a brief biography of his life, then explains the process of going from office drone to international man of mystery in a few (easy?) steps.  He talks about how to automate your life by controlling e-mails and phone calls, as well as become a remote worker at your current job, and even recommends that you outsource some of your regular functions to India.

And that’s where he lost me.  Outsourcing to other countries is not something I support.  I understand why he would think this is a good idea, but it’s not something I would do.

Ferriss also has the luxury of running his own company.  He has (or rather, had – I believe he sold it) a company that sells supplements over the internet.  He built it up himself, and then automated the process so much so that he only checks voicemail and emails every few weeks.  The income from the business finances his globe-trotting lifestyle.

That’s all well and good, but I don’t own a business, and my employer seems to think that remote workers are nonproductive workers.  We have to be where we can clock in and be monitored.

That’s not to say he doesn’t have good ideas, and some of his concepts are very solid.  Why are we checking email 45 times a day?  Have we trained our clients and coworkers that everything is an emergency that we will be available to correct 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

Essentially, Ferriss is preaching that there isn’t just one way of doing something, and that just because you’re busy all day doesn’t mean you are productive.  That is a powerful message to someone like me who spends a lot of time thinking “there has to be a better way!” while doing the same old things.

I plan on finishing the book in the next few weeks (I will definitely post an update to this review if something blow my mind).  It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading two other books besides this one, and those are actually writing-related.

Interestingly, the latest version of The Well-Fed Writer references The 4-Hour Workweek, so I am looking forward to seeing what Peter Bowerman gleaned from this book and how it affected his processes.

Do I recommend this book?  If you’re an outside-the-box thinker, absolutely yes.  It might be a little bit of preaching to the choir, but there is helpful information and some practice exercises that can get you out of a rut.

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.”

from The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
(review coming Monday!)