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I like the picture. Tim "in the O" that's one of Omaha's tag lines.
Never thought of evaluating time in such a manner! Very interesting.
Say you're a smart, motivated, energetic janitor making $10/hour. By this logic, you should hire a migrant worker for $8/hour to do your job and spend the profit going to law school or something. If your boss ever figures this out you're screwed, fired (the $8 an hour guy gets the job), and still need to pay for law school. Your dreams are even farther away and you just wasted a bunch of your finite time in the process.
Mr/Ms Janitor should make the most of his present time. They should experiment with the most effective ways to get their job done...play with the variables--their cleansing supplies, techniques, ways to communicate with their boss, ways to collaborate with their colleagues, until they do a spectacular job. They should figure out how to turn their cleaning into a workout. The result: They will have built a network of people they like being around because they challenged themselves to work together well with the other (and thus are happy at work!). They learned people/management skills. They learned about being organized. They got fit. They maybe moved forward the state of the art of cleaning. They can then leverage these skills into a higher paying profession (i.e.sell the idea for a consulting bestseller of 'winning cleaning techniques for upper management'). The point is that the present tasks were oddly satisfying because it involved a challenge, continuous improvement and constant learning.
Tim Ferriss talks about how hard physical labor is like zen meditation to him...that's exactly the point, embrace your situation and learn/milk as much out of it.
In the e-mail, David uses an example from Tim's book to show how you can structure the same work to give you personally more time to peruse more financially rewarding projects. I would assume that this means outsourcing the things you don't enjoy or that are not generating revenue at the rate so you can focus on higher revenue generating activities.
In Chris' example, the person is investing time getting better at a career in order to move that career forward. I think they are saying the same thing, but David is looking at it from the point of view that the person might be good at being a janitor and has found a way to make it generate more revenue in the same amount of time.
I think that is the same thing...trying to find ways to generate more revenue in the same amount of time.
Perhaps your time can begin to increase in exponential value if you then begin to perform a Pareto analysis of the 20% tasks - for example what Tim did with his email (which is a 20% task). In so doing you yet again increase the effectiveness of your time by a large margin, or factor.................
For those familiar with Robert Kiyosaki's definition of wealth (which I think is the correct one), wealth is the measure of time that your automated and/or accumulated money and/or income brings you.
For instance, if your living expenses are $1000 a month, and you have $12000 in the bank (or have the automated income to create $12,000 in twelve months), you could live on that for a year. You would be "twelve months" wealthy. You could then compound both your time and your money - obviously the idea is to increase both so as to become more wealthy.
Eventually there comes a point with automation where wealth can essentially be infinite, the ultimate result of compounding! Time and money, especially with regards to the concepts espoused in "The Four Hour Work Week" should always go together.
I did like 4 hour work week though if that counts for anything.
For years I've been a believer in incremental improvement with the occasional "aha" moments. I think improvements compound but you can only factor in recent ones. After a certain point you have just moved beyond them to the next level. This requires a new set of skills and the old skills are of lesser impact/importance.
While this is incredibly seductive on one level, it do have to agree with Chris above that in the end it seems to play into the "bigger, better, faster, more" mindset that 4HWW seems to oppose.
Sure we can always make improvements, but we shouldn't give up trying to improve things because we're afraid of going to far. When we do spend our time doing unproductive things like sitting on the beach it's important to recognize what we're sacrificing to do that. Maybe if we spent that day investing in the future we could have two days on the beach next year. Sometimes it's worth it sometimes it's not.
1) If you can invest in money, there's no reason you can't invest your time (which equates to money, anyway, since your time can be thought of in terms of money).
2) If 4HWW professes that you shouldn't be overly concerned with investing money in hopes of spending it later, it should also hold true that you shouldn't be overly concerned about investing time in hopes of spending it later.
Perhaps it would be interesting to hear how you would tie this idea of time investment into the ideas of the 4HWW.
Compounding time is a great idea with huge potential, especially the younger you start.
After reading Tim's book, I concluded time was not just about making more money (and working a "4 hour work week") but so much more. How so?
1.) Money and Interest Rate are clearly measurable.
2.) Time and Pay can be measured in terms of annual salary. Or better yet, and as Tim explained, how much do I earn given the number of hours worked.
This might be a little off the subject but I think it is related. A chapter in Tim's book questioned the use of time and how one was spending their one-and-only life. To me, this was the essence of the 4 Hour Work Week. How was I spending the time in my one-and-only life? Not how much was I earning.
Tim suggested that I not ask "am I happy" but "am I excited." And for me, this was the life-changing chapter in the book.
Although I have so much (a beautiful, charming wife, great kids, a beautiful house etc.) I didn't feel happy. I was asking myself, what the hell is wrong with me? I SHOULD be happy. But by starting to asking myself, "am I excited?" I realized I was bored out of my friggin mind. Yes, I was grateful for what I had and I realized so many would love to be in my shoes. But I was bored.
I have spent the past few months finding ways to inject some "excitement" back into my life. When looking at activities (at home and with my career), I find ones that really interest me. Ones that send a shiver up my spine. Ones that physically gives me goose-bumps. And I asked how I could inject excitement in all areas of my life: career, family, hobbies etc.
And I became more aware of the activities that bore me. And these are the activities that I either try to eliminate or out-source.
From Tim's book, I learned the focus is not just to make an extra buck per hour. But to use time so that I am more fulfilled, more happy...and more excited....per hour.
Immeasurable. And priceless.
EJ
Point being: it's all relative, surely? While time should not, in theory, be wasted, the option to be able to waste time is a luxury. Catch 22.
That aside - didn't you already make David's point in your book, Tim?
As Chris' post also suggests, the option is only really there if one already has secured a certain level of status in life that affords the opportunity to outsource the work. Up to that point - i.e., for 'normal people' - the only likely outcome is you're making it clear that your job can be done by somebody else, for less. Instead of getting more for your money, you're unemployed, and your boss is getting more for his money.
Ultimately, one suspects that in the long term, if enough people pursued this, the only group who would really win, ironically, is big business.
Life most certainly builds upon itself and the "investments" you make now will "pay dividends" for you in the future.
Chris - Your janitor example was a poor one as not all jobs are possible to be outsourced. If that janitor were an office gopher at company XYZ the story would be different. This kind of lifestyle isn't for everyone and those of us that are able to do it should be quite thankful.
Isn't this concept already coined "opportunity cost"?
I suppose the wild card to it all is whether or not this "time" saved, lost, compounded or whatever is "quality time" or just being busy.
Nate
Serious question: do you find that the more successful you are at implementing a 4HWW lifestyle, the more it isolates you from people who don't live that way?
Trust-fund brats and the marginally-employed have more schedule commonality than 'regular people' (ie. 40-hour WW commuting workers) - just take a look at the Sunday-night crowd at any club. I'm sensing a hidden social cost to the 4HWW lifestyle - 'Hey, want to surf?" "Can't - I have a big project due". "Hey, let's go to Berlin!" "Can't - I have a job, dude". Etc.
How do you manage the social tensions / filtering / isolation from peers that the 4HWW can create? Sure, success of any kind can be isolating, but radically increasing personal freedom is different than just being wealthier than someone.... and I think a lot harder for the less-free to take.
How do you bridge the culture gap, or have you just given up - and retreated into a clique of the super-free? Note that I'm -not- talking about the stresses of being successful in general (i.e. best-selling author) - I'm asking about the unique problem-set of having more freedom than your peers because of implementing the ideas in your book.
Maybe an idea for a future post?
- Karl
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Hi Karl,
Great question. I was just discussing this today with a few self-made decamillionaires. It's not just 4HWW. The more successful you are in any field, the fewer people will identify with you. You might still be down-to-earth enough to identify with them, but the opposite may not hold true. Often doesn't.
It may be lonely at the top, but there are still plenty of interesting people there ;) Better than the alternative, methinks.
Cheers,
Tim
I think its a concept many of us have already experienced (as with many things in life) its just interesting to have someone elaborate on the idea in a little more detail and perhaps encourage us to take a more observant role in our time investments.
This post a bit more challenging for me to wrap my head around but I'll have a go. Having time as a investment is interesting concept only one that can be measured in moments of "now" and possibly by the end of this lifetime. I think the only way to invest in time is with enjoying every moment even if the moment sucks, exciting, or even mediocre. Most of us Americans can barley handle eating without another activity on like TV or internet. Most people don't enjoy the act of eating itself. This translates to every area. I think certain instances like when we are with friends or lovers, in creative pursuits like writing or drawing, we may be more in the moment. I am sure there are some people that still have their running to-do or worry list in their head. The return on investment is to be "in the zone" but also when engaging with a friend or a lover to be in the zone add value to the time stock. This time investment will show dividends when you and I are 85 on the wrap around porch getting ready to play with the great grandkids and knowing that we didn't have any regrets. That thought doesn't even come time mind because we are in the moment with lots of hugs, good food, wine, family and friends.
To me it's the only way to measure time as an investment. What do you think?
Hugs,
Jen
Now, for my money, love is an infinite resource (in a manner of speaking). We can love many people and not run out of love. We might run out of energy, money, time, attention, but do we ever run out of love? Mother Teresa didn't think so. (If you doubt that love is a resource, ask yourself about it's power to change your life.)
This post vibes very well with another one over at ProBlogger about meta-improvement.
In this post they talk about the act of improving your ability to improve. Heady, but makes sense... improve your ability to improve and you'll consistently better yourself faster and more effectively.
I love this idea. Thanks for the post!
Outsourcing, geoarbitrage are all great ideas and ways to increase the available amount of time while completing the same amount of tasks and at a decent price. Resulting in an increased amount of time, money and essentially mobility.
In practice: Nowadays before engaging in almost any activity whether it be for fun, work, miscellaneous events -- I quickly evaluate the time-cost value of the activity...certain questions pop into my head like "how much money and time is this going to cost me?"..."is the financial/personal/emotional gain worth the time/money being spent on the activity?"....and it is through quick analytical thinking such as this coupled with the principles I learned in 4HWW and through various people in this blog that I have managed to save not only time and money...but also --in many cases-- my sanity.
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Hi Rhonda,
I think I'll be in CA for most of the foreseeable future, but if I land in Denver outside of the airport, I might just let you know :)
Tim
I have been doing that but did not know it.
It has been a MAJOR part of my success to date.
And now that it is defined I think I know how to add
the 80/20 rule to more effectively compound
my time.
By focusing on compounding time as a specific
project and simply applying the same principles to it
as I do to other business processes.
THANK YOU.
( This is why this is my favorite blog. )
Tom
I totally agree with you that it is impossible to compound time. We never know when our time is up. So the only freedom we have is to live with impeccability. As many of you have stated, you can do one of two things with time...Invest it or Spend it. I don't think there is a gray area. I invest my time not for what it will bring me later, but what it brings me right now. When investing my time and living impeccably I feel powerful. I don't feel good if I lounge in front of a TV watching a stupid show. So instead of always thinking about the future, which is what this post propogates, finding the peace in the moment is where it's at...compliments of Mr. Tolle.
Great question. I was just discussing this today with a few self-made decamillionaires. It's not just 4HWW. The more successful you are in any field, the fewer people will identify with you. You might still be down-to-earth enough to identify with them, but the opposite may not hold true. Often doesn't.
It may be lonely at the top, but there are still plenty of interesting people there ;) Better than the alternative, methinks.
Cheers,
Tim
Read the email again - compound time? The man talks about being more efficient, and you guys act like he just found the cure for cancer.
Stop with the brown nosing.
But choose how to invest that moment.
If you have a personal "highest and best use" that varies from how you currently use your time, you owe it to yourself, your family and the world to move yourself closer to that purpose.
You can completely accept where you're at while working on expanding, growing and developing in the same way as you can work towards "a better life" while being intensely Present.
Yet, to me, "Compound Time" is not as much a prescription as a description.
[REALLY REQUIRE YOUR GUIDANCE/THOUGHTS - ESPECIALLY ON THE 2nd POINT]
Was thinking today...
1) You had said "In order to increase output, you need to decrease input". But in one way if I had not read the book 4HWW (input), I would have not improved my efficiency/productivity (output). So isn't taking time out for input equally important?
2) I have a family business which is going on since 58 years. My brother expired and now everything ultimately will be handled by me in the future. People used to keep saying "Do an MBA". If you were in my place, would you still leave the company for a year or 2 and do an MBA, or spend those 1 or 2 years having hands-on experience?
For you info: We have our own line of publications. I have already been working here since 3 years - and am currently handling our website, administration, circulation and technology related departments. I am also part of ad sales department. I am 24 years of age. As guidance I have my CEO who is there for me on a daily basis & my father - who helps occasionally (If required. Although he is spending less time for this business now)
REALLY REQUIRE YOUR REPLY ON THIS ONE - as these decision can alter my future in a big way.
Thanks
I can't offer much guidance here, but I am always skeptical of the value of an MBA, unless it's required within a big company to get promoted. Assuming that's where you want to stay.
I also applied to Stanford B-School three times and -- in the end -- decided my time was better spent in the field. I might change my mind, but it's unlikely.
There are some genius professors in some programs, and incredible people in all good programs, but it's not a question of bad vs. good. It's staying in your company vs. MBA.
If you want to stay in your family business, I don't see a reason. If you want credentials for expanded options in the future, it might not be a bad choice for a 24-year old.
Anyone else?
Tim
If you're not sure that it would be unnecessary, you probably need to do it.
Taking over the family company is a big deal and you're gonna need to have the broader skills, contacts and awareness to take things to the next level.
Besides - B-School is crazy-fun!!!
Disclaimer: I have one.
Thank you for your thoughts and feedback. Very helpful to have an opinion from 1. one who is extremely successful & has not done MBA, and 2. another who (Im sure is successful in his own way &) has done an MBA! :)
Thanks a ton
Sure, this is an interesting persepctive on it, describing it in terms of compound interest on your time. But really, all it means is that you need to take some of your time away from work to make yourself more productive at what you do when you return to work.
First of all a great idea! However, while money is tangible and actually compounds with a given rate of interest over a period of time when invested, saved time (through outsourcing and other means) on the other hand, unfortunately cannot actually compound, it can only ADD up.
Time is even rarer than money and cannot be grown (fixed 10,000 days)!.
Regarding utilization of saved time to build skills, mastery can be built only upto a certain level (eg., building your body), unlike money which can be compounded infinetly.
Good post. Long time fan and inspired. I read your book a while back and it motivated me to make a change. The culmination of this is my site that launched today. It is so new that the bots have not even touched it. I am considering post a project on Elance to market it. Would be thankful for any advice or opinions you may have on the site/application. Thanks Tim, I am certain this is my route to my own 4hourworkweek. Cheers,
JON
This post reminds me of Ray Kurzweil's idea about 'the singularity' as outlined in his books "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and "The Singularity is Near" - it deals with the concept of exponential increases in processing power / machine intelligence, but there are a lot of similarities to the idea of personal efficiency.
You might want to check them out.
Thanks for the reply. One refinement to my question:
Old world: obvious divide / culture gap between very successful and moderately successful people.
("Man, Bill Gates never wants to go the the Waffle Hut with me any more...")
New world: two people, identical mid-level incomes - one hard-working salaried employee, other a 4HWW-inspired pet-supplement-company operator. From a cash persepective, the two are the same, but there's a huge culture and freedom gap between the two - and a resulting social disconnect.
That's the area I'm curious about - because unlike massive wealth which tends to impact many areas of a persons life, implementing the 4HWW can create subtle social strains 'in-place'. And, it's a historically new problem. And, it's all your fault. ;)
The problems of the suddenly-wealthy are pretty well known (and hillarious!), but the problems of the suddenly time-and-freedom rich are more interesting.
So, I'm not sure the self-made decamillionaires would have a lot to say about this... Or do they?
Best,
Karl
Good on ya for wanting to pick up a programming language. The crucible of my Computer Science degree was the semester we had to complete a non-trivial assignment in Scheme. Just be prepared to be chased around in your dreams by rogue parentheses.
I still struggle with human language acquisition, but I've got programming languages sorted. I always wonder if programming languages actually count as "real languages".
Develop a system of doing things.
Out source as much as that system as possible
With the free time you now have, Improve you personal skills in areas that directly effect income...or any other variable you are considering
With the new skills, your effectiveness doing the remainder of the non outsourced actives increases...resulting in more income and less time spent on that activity
Thus leaving you more time to go to the jungle and hang with the people and going dancing at a samba club in Brazil...that is my goal
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi...
B-School can be a great waste of time too - for me, it wasn't the content that was important as much as fulfilling my sense of what I needed to do... so if you feel you should, do it. If you don't, save youself the time and money and join the samba dancers down in Brazil ;)
You have a great opportunity - use it rather than being trapped by it.
Compound interest is not some form of magic. It merely describes the mathematical concept that when a starting sum is multiplied by a number greater than one, if the product of the multiplication is added to the original sum, and multiplied again by the same or another number greater than one, the resulting accumulated sum grows exponentially, rather than linearly.
Perhaps compound interest could be viewed as a mathematical expression of the value of patience, or as an illustration of the Law of the Harvest ("as you sow, so shall you reap").
Although it appears that interest can be compounded infinitely, no one individual can benefit from compound interest for a greater period than his or her lifetime. And as Warren Buffet can attest, as the accumulated sum resulting from compound interest grows very large, it becomes more and more difficult to find a single entity that wishes to pay the same rental rate one could get for the use of a smaller sum. In fact, when the invested sum becomes large enough, some portion of it may end up being rented out at multiples LESS than one (that is, a negative interest rate)! And compounding a sum invested at a negative interest rate turns the whole compound interest "magic" on its head!!
So, can we compound time? Tim Ferriss (4HWW) suggests methods for increasing the effective use of one's time in order to reduce the time needed to meet one's basic needs, and suggests putting the time thus liberated to pursuing a positive answer NOT to the question "Am I happy?" but "Am I excited?".
Perhaps as one compounds one's time, the key question one asks is not "Am I happy?", nor "Am I excited" but "Am I making a positive difference in other's lives?" or "Am I making a difference in as many other lives as I am capable of?"
I believe that both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are real life examples of asking "Am I making a difference in someone else's life?" after having amassed through investment, a sum of money so large that it no longer has any direct relationship to the level of creature comfort (or excitement) one individual can enjoy. Or perhaps it reflects a basic truth that making a difference in the lives of others is a higher form of excitement than can be experienced in any other way.
Look at Tim's involvement in raising awareness and funds for good causes of many kinds.
May I suggest that the ultimate compounding of one's time is moving inexorably, through one's day to day choices of how to use one's money and one's time, toward a place where every waking moment is devoted to improving the lives of others, without thought of personal reward. And the ultimate paradox, I believe, is that if one can approach that level of service and self-effacement, one becomes, ultimately, the best person one can be, which is the ultimate personal reward.
Perhaps John (posted May 8 at 4:53 pm) hinted at just that, when he said that although time is a finite resource, love is not. I define love as a desire for the betterment of another. Can compounding my time and money empower me to compound my love for others?
Thank you for taking time out to help me take a decision.
Looking at the entire picture, I think it is better I spend time working at my business. One can always hire MBAs to know their thinking and make use of their experience/knowledge.
And if I ever feel im lacking knowledge in a particular area - I can always do some short courses to take care of it. Plus, reading the right books like the 4HWW can always help improve efficiency/productivity and help build a clearer vision for the company.
So finally, I guess, going to Brazil is a better option! :)
@ Tim
Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule (on my earnest request) to share your thoughts. It means a lot to me.
Take care
Learning another language can be another example of time compounded. If you spend 6 months learning Spanish, for example, then you have suddenly expanded your potential international markets to all of Latin America, Spain, and Philippines. Same for Chinese.
Learning to use a computer and how to work the internet is another.
And here's another angle: You don't necessarily have to become a total computer geek to make computers work better for you. You just have to know what they are capable of, then hire someone else to make it happen. And you don't have to learn enough Chinese to debate subtle issues in the Tao in order to do business with Chinese speakers - that's why you hire native speakers.
The whole point is, of course, that you can't to the same thing every day in your job and expect to become bigger and better. Water cooler time does not compound, nor does time spent producing progress reports for bean counters. Nor does time spent learning the new time sheet system.
And finally, think of ideas. A new idea can increase exponentially in value from none at all (if you don't know about it). ESPECIALLY new paradigm ideas - like being able to get all your job responsibilities taken care of in 4 hours instead of 40. Who would have thought ...
However, when working with technology, particularly software (my field), these limitations are far less pronounced. I know programmers that are literally 5-10x more productive than the average one. In fact, the best ones accomplish tasks on the weekend that the weakest ones could not accomplish given a month.
Part of that success is just inborn, but a big part of it is hard work and building your "toolbox". Good time managers build and refine their toolbox. Good engineers handle more projects in less time. The best programmers build "toolboxes of efficiency" that they carry around with them.
To whit, my company recently lost a support person. I spent twenty hours expanding the tools we use to do support and now I'm doing his job in less than 2 hours / day. We'll still replace him as we're growing, but I've just compounded time. The tool I've built not only increases manageability of support issues, it also provides mechanisms for allowing the incumbent support to "self-optimize".
The best at any knowledge-related field are identified as such by their ability to complete actions in less time. We call this experience and skill (and sometimes education), but it's basically time compounding.
That said, I think you ought to look at it with the unit being the value of time rather than just time itself which is what most of your writing is implicitly geared toward anyway (at least from what I've read). In addition, I'd suggest an analogy to options instead. With an option, you invest assuming as certain payoff, but because you can't predict the future, you might get a return that is much greater than you expect. As with any activity, we can have a goal for an outcome and an idea about how much we'll value the activity, but the reality might be completely different. For example, I recently got married. While I assumed that the event would be a lot of fun, it was nothing compared to how much I enjoyed it in real life. My appreciation for the event FAR exceeded my expectation.
Ultimately, by investing my very limited time in an activity that I thought I would enjoy and eliminating things that were unnecessary, I got a payoff that was better than expected. If I had done the opposite, I would never had been exposed to that upside and the result would be that I would have received much LESS value for my time.
Thanks for carrying the torch and pushing the envelope of thought on how people can get more value out of their lives.
Nowhere does this show up better, by the way, than in time invested in reading productivity blogs. You can cover a lot of really useful concepts in a very short period of time, but after you exhaust the big ideas, you're stuck reading about subtle tweaks to GTD, new apps that are only marginally better than the old apps, lists of suggestions that contain only one or two actionable new ideas...
Anyway, I guess I'm suggesting that you can definitely spend time to make time, or "invest" it or whatever, but at some level of efficiency you're going to be better off just spending all your time doing what you need to do than continuing to invest some of it in incremental improvements to efficiency. Not exactly an earth-shattering insight, but it is in serious opposition to this concept of compounding, where it's really worth putting every spare dollar to work.
However, if anyone does know about skills that show exponential improvement curves, that could blow my pessimism out of the water...
Beyond that, what if the compounding effect goes beyond yourself? What if, by increasing your efficiency (or at least shifting it somewhere else, like India, etc.) you not only gain extra hours and increase the value of those hours, but you add to the available time and the value of that time for others. This could be your spouse or family (e.g. you earn more so your wife doesn't have to work as much, or your time with your significant other or kids is about play instead of work...) Or it could be your co-workers who either benefit from your efficiency or learn from your methods, and increase the value of their own time. Or stockholders or stakeholders in your company that either gain financially from you being more efficient, or gain from you focusing on the most important problems instead of the daily clutter.
Like matter being but another form of energy (or vice versa), I'm sure the value of your time can be viewed in a number of intangible ways, from value in dollars to quantity (4 hour work week!) to quality (drudgery vs. adventure).
While these nuances would be difficult to measure, I'm sure there is indeed some kind of compounding affect here. Interesting concept to explore.
Time invested in the future could be anything from working out (your health is your future), reading (gaining knowledge for the future), engaging in artistic endeavors (your emotional outlets are tied to your mental health and sometimes to your financial future), and working on projects of all types. Your "in the moment" time is your release. Party. Have fun. Socialize. It's okay to spend time doing things that seemingly have no long-term value, for many of them often end up having long-term value after all. For example, I have always been a social kind of person. I like to go out get my swerve on as much as anyone, and through that I've met all of the people with whom I have close relationships today (family excluded, of course). Furthermore, I've learned a lot about my fellow man by interacting on a regular basis, which leads me to the next point.
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i have a question that is on the opposite side of the spectrum. time is money and is valuable. we spend our whole lives trying to find the balance and truly appreciate this concept. thankfully now, we have actual accounts that its possible and the forum to discuss achieving this dream - 4HWW :) . what if though, you already have experienced the value of time... through such things as backpacking around the world. what if you understand this already prior to being swallowed up by the underpaid and overworked life of the 40hr robot.... however circumstances have brought you into that world again. how does one re-acclimatise themselves in this world or do you ever? - where life supposedly begins on friday night and ends on sunday night... karl said that life at the top may be isolating...however knowing the secret of time and living where others don't fully understand it yet is isolating too...even if you're not a millionaire -- yet :)
comments and ideas would be great...i would love to hear similar experiences or guidance...
abrazos!!
The question then becomes this: How do we define high-value time, and how can we get more of it? If this question is important to us (and I’m guessing it is), then it is down to us to do two things: define the word ‘value’ as used here, and then set about finding ways to obtain more of it. Creating a definition of high-value time is of course very personal - mine is bound to differ from yours - but it is also the rationale for why you would bother pursuing an answer to the second question - how to get more of it? Unfortunately many people obsessively seek productivity gains as an end in themselves. Indeed, many productivity exponents (Tim excluded :-) )are great at telling us how to be more efficient or effective in what we do, but not so great at answering why we would care!
It seems apparent to me though, that unless you have defined what high-value time means for you, there is little point in pursuing productivity gains or four hour work weeks. Making it clear to yourself beforehand what high-value time actually means for you, helps to make it clear why you are pursuing greater effectiveness and efficiency at work, as well as giving purpose and momentum to the exercise.
Here are some reasons why I try to telescope task-time:
* To free up time for learning new skills
* To free up time for new experiences
* To free up time to think
* To give me time to produce or improve objects and services of value to others
* To free up time for nurturing relationships with loved ones
* To free up time to enjoy physical activities
* To free up time for laughter and silliness
All of these things (and more) fit within my definition of high-value time, and provide me with all the reasons I need to think hard about how to do things more effectively and efficiently. In fact you could say they’re the basis of my very own - and very personal - lifestyle economics. What are yours?
To me, the ultimate is living a life of purpose and passion. 4HWW is a step beyond being slaves to the relentless pursuit of meaningless more, and a novel way of experiencing a sea change/ downshift while enhance quality of life by leveraging our optimum value creation... but just working less is a vehicle, not a destination.
To me, structure your lifestyle to support your purpose.
4HWW concepts and strategies can help you live better... but if you don't know your purpose, you'll just be enjoying distracting yourself.
In contrast we need look no further than Tim himself - he's not just a lazy BJJ-fighting Tango dancer: Au contrare, he's using his lifestyle and position to impact the world and magnify his impact... his lifestyle allows hiim to fulfill his purpose.
thanks so much...i really appreciate you taking time to read my comment. i find your advice inspiring and everyday i am working towards this goal. i guess it is a bit of a culture shock when you come back to a different mentality. in this months 'outside' magazine anderson cooper talks about his experiences and how he has adjusted to experiencing the world around him in all sorts of ways and how he adapts to each circumstance. i read your blog...cool stuff man...i lived in australia for a couple of months. didn't make it down to brisbane....would love to talk more....about your experiences in the adventure of life.
cheers!
Your comments don't seem to work, so that's why you get this comment on the wrong post:
I love warren buffet, how he uses metaphors is awesome.
Metaphors are one of the topics next to storytelling that will be completely hot again in 2009 (again). Happiness will be the subject of 2008, or come to think of it, Meaning. Check my Thoughts on Happiness symposium. Next years theme will be the Moral of the Story. About the science of morality and the art of storytelling.
Would you like to join me at one of the Thoughts on Happiness symposiums?
Yes time can be invested and compounded. It's being done already in every type of multi-level marketing business in the world. I personally am familiar with Amway but any other multi-level marketing business uses the same principle. You invest time to help people in your organization get started in their own business. You make money when they make money. Since they are running their own business and not yours, they are motivated to get up and do the work for themselves, not necessarily for you. They build their organization and as it grows, their income grows and thus your income grows. As their organization grows, it becomes self perpetuating and thus you don't have to be as actively involved in it as in the beginning which frees up your time. Let's say the group has 200 people in it. 200 people who each have their own dreams and goals and are working toward the accomplishment of it for their own purpose takes all of the pressure off of you. They do the work. They build their own business and in effect, build yours. If you normally invest 8 hours a week in your business and everybody in your group is investing 8 hours a week, that's now 1600 hours a week being invested into your business. I was in Amway for several years. This was the basis of most of their work. And it made sense to me.
Please help - I always wanted to master speed reading but none of the methods worked 100%. I was positive that TIM's WILL WORK but it's nowhere to be found....
Any info will be greatly appreciated - please email me directly to madontsis
@msn.com.......
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Hi Maria,
Please be sure to see the notice on the order page itself -- the PX Method is not shipping. The page is just intended as a sample template for people to use for testing their own products.
Apologies for any confusion. Be sure to see the instructions for tripling reading speed in the "Low-Information Diet" chapter of 4HWW.
All the best,
Tim
For example, if you eat right and exercise, you will not be effective if you are arrogant, egotistic or self-hating. Buddhism enables you to cleans your life of spiritual impurities, thus adding more "wattage" to the present moment.
See: http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/buddhismofnichi...
So my question is this: Is it time we're talking about here, or experience?
Time isn't quite concrete enough to compound, as several posters have pointed out. Compounding experience, though, seems very tangible.
Mini-retirements speak to the need for higher quality experiences. Do you want to learn German vocabulary and syntax and pronunciation, or do you want to know what it's like, if only for awhile, to experience the world as Germans experience it?
An experience that enriches your life and puts a smile on your face long after that time has passed has compounded in value.
Time to go on a tangent: Tim: you mentioned somewhere about wanting to achieve a full splits in six months, or something like that.
Suggestion: take ballet classes for six months.
Reason: It's not the range of motion in the hips that matters. It's the stability and strength and control through the range of motion of the supporting joints above and below the hips that matters.
Here's to years of injury-free training!
Wayne
Perhaps we are missing something here in the hot house that is Asia.
The key to compound interest (regarding money) is the way that the principle grows exponentially. At a 11 percent interest rate, your initial principle doubles in a little less than 7 years, and quadruples in a little less than 14 years, and will have multiplied by 8 within about 20 years.
The process the author is talking about does not seem to me to be exponential. Firstly we would need something to measure and a verifiable "interest rate" but more importantly we'd have to prove that the effect was exponential rather than simply one of addition.
Aside from this there's the more obvious problem that time is much different than money. For one thing time has a much more finite upper limit (called your life expectancy). Money is a medium of exchange, time is a medium through which we live and beyond practicing a healthy lifestyle we don't have ways to exponentially increase our "time". We can increase our "free time" or "networking time" but again I'd argue this won't be exponential since at best we can move from 8 hrs to 16 hrs each day, and then it ends -- no more compounding.
One can always invest in oneself and it definitely pays to start as early as possible, do the most effective things, and to put as much time in as possible (to a point). This advice is quite useful and obvious and doesn't require the author's (faulty) line of reasoning.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd266118-285a-11dd-8f...
The more time I have the more I do fitness excercise (love to excercise). It also gives me time to hang around blogs like this one and let my intellect work a little bit as well. The more time you have, the more you can do. You can do more quality things.
This may have already been covered above -- the comments are extensive -- but I was wondering about your thoughts on timebanking (www.timebanks.org). I think it's an interesting take on time as "money".
Also, in regard to time compounding, perhaps as long as you "feel" that you're compounding time then maybe that's the most important thing -- whether it's inherently possible or not :)
I'm new to the world of the 4HWW and Tim Ferriss, but I appreciate you relating your thoughts, even when I don't agree with them! Thanks!
from donald trump on down time is measured in the same exact way.
However VALUE of that time a variable and compounding can take place. Doug in his 4hww book makes like 3,000 hr. Tim might make 5,000 hr.Donald is 100,000/hr.
Doug gains thousands of dollars and extra time by making his vendor company SPEND hours filling his orders, and yahoo collect his money. He thus has entreprenualized (moving a commodity from one level to a higher level). However, the law of action and reaction states there must be a reaction to this action...but where? Doug's vending company is not happy because they have been de-entreprenualized (a commodity has been moved from a higher level to a lower level). Doug has dumped hours of work from his plate onto theirs....they only way for the vendor company can reverse this action - reaction is to make a second action - reaction. Doug dumps all these hours of work on them..reaction call Doug and tell him to get his butt over to their shipping dock and start filling his own orders with no help from them.
Donald has a MUCH BIGGER PLATE of work hours compared to dougs one company, donald has 100 companies....so this huge plate of spagetthi like hours of work is desiminated among 100 companies and 10,000 employees.
Donald is entreprenualized Boko insane amount of hours of work. but fortunatly its not being dumped on doug's one vending company..they would explode from the sheer influx of Donald hours or one person they would explode too but into tiny peices. so with such a large plate you need many more people...and many more companies to handle the load. many hands make light work.
So yes the VALUE of time can be compounded...however the hours them selves can never be compounded...sorry your watch can only count 24 hours no matter WHO you are.
hugs
kris
not proofreading this because i think i got a mental hernia from thinking and writing and realized i should have shifted this work to a higher level by
outsourcing it :)
By hiring a cheaper janitor and going to law school, you are essentially making a risky investment, and just like a monetary investment, (if your boss finds out) it can fall out from under you and leave you with losses.
The "sharpening your saw" (as Drew pointed out) practises that Chris goes on to define; experimenting, collaborating, etc. can be viewed as longer term, safe investments that still add value to your future and your time. You just have to be mindful of how you invest your time in the same way you have to be mindful of how you invest your money.
Great post Tim, thanks a lot!
_Do what will ease your future workload._
- Eliminate, Streamline and Delegate routine, repeating tasks.
- Consider your target, define ideal Abilities and Qualities of a person that have reached that target, and concentrate on acquiring them.
- Repeat
I think the new book on Buffett ("The Snowball") is a great illustration of compounding ones time.
Cheers.
Ethan
There's plenty of green(er) grass for everyone to enjoy. Just as soon as outsourcing to India took off more people adept at compounding their own time popped up, in other words entrepreneurs and managers.