A Most Liveable Work Week
Posted on | October 11, 2009 | 4 Comments
As I near the end of the rewrites of my latest book and begin thinking about my next set of projects, I have been drawn to read some new or new-ish books about time management, setting different priorities, outsourcing, creating abundance, and allowing yourself the freedom of more of your precious time instead of being a slave to never-ending lists of things to do.
The idea of maintaining my status as The List Queen just wears me out some days and frankly, I feel that I have outgrown the need to be pressured into doing more than my body or brain feels inclined to do simply because some random ink scratchings on a piece of paper mean that the task is on THE LIST. (sigh!)
As I’ve been having a bit of a rethink about some potential life changes, I ordered one book online, received it last week, and have been reading it in approximately 10-12 page snippets for the last 5 days. The book is called The 4-Hour Work Week
The author,Timothy Ferriss, emphasises that this manner of living is not simply for the gap-year 20-somethings out there in the world — it’s a way of life that could be embraced by anyone at any age who is willing to live unconventionally.
Goodness — that rings a lot of bells in my head!
I’m been thinning out the household items, donating to charities, and getting better organised. The idea of living with less possessions registers more strongly with each passing month — less to insure, less to fret about, less to keep clean.
Ferriss goes a step further in The 4-Hour Work Week
I’ll continue to suggest more of these types of books in coming columns because I believe that there are rather a LOT of us who have ‘gypsy feet’ and yet still need to earn an income while we travel.
Lots to think about!
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4 Responses to “A Most Liveable Work Week”
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Deborah Harmes, Ph.D.
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October 12th, 2009 @ 11:27 AM
Ferriss’s book is a mind-bender, isn’t it? It’s good to step away from whatever we’re doing every now and then and consider alternatives. Thanks for the reminder!
October 12th, 2009 @ 9:16 PM
Oh I am seriously LONGING to ‘step away’ right now! (grin!) I keep nibbling away at this book and it is prompting rather a LOT of those types of thoughts.
Thanks for the comments!
October 19th, 2009 @ 8:26 PM
Ferriss’ book is certainly inspiring a lot of people. You need only look at the explosion of bloggers these days jumping on the “lifestyle design” wagon. Ourselves included. My partner at NuNomad, Richard and I were location independent and blogging about it before the publication of Ferriss’ book. Since then, the jargon which Ferriss coined (ie, “lifestyle design”, “new rich”) has spread like wildfire. In fact, it is difficult now to write on the subject of location independence without using his terminology. However, as a nomad actually out in the world, I have to admit I have found very few with 4 hour work weeks. To the contrary, most work quite hard. Is this upsetting? Not to me. These people continue to live out their dreams of travel and are not chained to one location. They have freed themselves from that confinement. In addition, many love what they do. If you love what you do – what does it matter how many hours you do it?
October 31st, 2009 @ 12:44 AM
Tim Ferriss’ book was a real trail blazer. He does not believe anyone should be a slave to the system! Having a strong entrepreneural streak is important in making this kind of transition. He has great ideas, but most people are not independent enough to follow his example. The majority of people still love the conformity of a 9-to-5 job, even if the long hours and the stress kills them (and it does).