Letting go of Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week
How can I describe the weight lifted from my shoulders now that he is gone?
Our relationship began 6 months ago when I read his book, The Four Hour Work Week.
Now, in January, it’s over.
Here’s how it went down.
For the last 6 months, as I worked to build my business, Tim Ferriss kept pestering me.
“Do you really want to be working this hard? Or are you only working this hard because you have to? Or maybe you’re just too chicken to figure out how to travel around the world with your 80-pound dog, writing stories and working only 4 hours a week, with your team of virtual assistants taking care of the rest.”
While he takes pains in the book to explain that 4 hours is simply his model, and the real goal is to provide “freedom” to do whatever you want, wherever, whenever, the implication is something must be wrong with the rest of us who still have our heads down, trying to accomplish things.
That we are somehow less free.
And then, this week, I got the flu. It was horrible. It made me understand what it was like to be 92.
It made me wish my dog had a tub & pulley contraption so I could lower him down 3 stories and he could walk himself.
It made me drink way too much Gatorade.
And get way too much sleep.
My brain simply stopped functioning. I was totally unable to do any work of any kind.
And work, I realized, was what I longed for, more than anything else.
I craved it.
I thought of Third Rock’s Alec Baldwin on his hospital bed after a heart attack, pronouncing, “I have only one regret. I didn’t work enough!”
Goodbye, Tim.
Pre-flu, I was very much looking forward to listening to NPR radio host & career coach Marty Nemko interview Tim Ferriss on his show. Marty Nemko is an excellent interviewer, and because he lands in the opposite camp on work-life balance, I really wanted to hear them speak.
But Tim Ferriss committed twice, and flaked twice, both times at the last minute.
Apparently, flakiness is the kind of value you must cultivate to remain true to the 4-hour-work-week dream.
I have no interest in cultivating the side of myself that flakes on public radio show hosts.
Because that’s really the essence of work; that’s what makes it so satisfying.
The ability to help or bring joy or pleasure to others — while at the same time growing your own skills and abilities, and, of course, supporting yourself.
It’s disrespectful to regular working people to tell them they shouldn’t be working so much.
We should be proud of our work.
And not listen to anyone telling us why we’re wrong.
However, I can’t let dear Tim go without first thanking him for the things I learned from him that have really helped me:
- No media, news, non-work-critical internet viewing during the week (ironic for someone writing a blog, I know)
- Turning email off while working, and and turning it back on every few hours
- Getting a VA
- General limit-setting; not always being available for calls, meetings; asking the purpose & agenda beforehand.
- Brainstorming the life you really want and planning your business around that.
- Realizing your ideal life isn’t necessarily tied to income–though he seems to contradict this by flaunting how much money he makes throughout the book; Barbara Sher puts it this way: When you love what you do, you don’t need to retire. That’s the truly revolutionary statement. But it would never make a bestselling title, unfortunately.
Tim Ferriss wasn’t right for me, but he may be right for some people. Maybe even you.
Tim Ferriss is your man.
Or, do you want to have mastered the art & craft of whatever you’re best at, and have made a real difference?
8 Responses to “Letting go of Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week”
I have to agree with you. Tim’s book has many brilliant things in it- but, like many of the things present in western culture, it’s ultimately unsustainable. The only way he can manage a four-hour workweek, is if other people are doing the work.
I must give him his due, as you do, that getting help and support, and thinking more clearly through work patterns is incredibly important.
And yet I had a similar heart reaction to his book that I did to The Secret- there is something not entirely -true- at the core of it all, even if there are beneficial elements involved. Thanks for articulating it. 
Oooh! Another Tim Ferris break-up? Must be a trend.
You’re right on target about the unsustainability thing, and I think it’s also about the freak-out factor. When someone (like Milana Leshinsky) says “do what I do and you’ll be able to work twenty hours a week”, it’s exciting because you can FEEL how restorative and healthy that would be. Plus it sounds like it might actually possible.
A human-scaled workweek! Something that would let you do the thing you were born to do, and still have time for your own life, your own self-work process. Ahhh, I want!
Four hours presses a lot of panic buttons. And when you’re in panic mode you just can’t be creative.
Also, about the flake thing: my yoga mentor once spent a year only stretching — no strength exercises. He’d been an olympic swimmer and figured he could skip it for a while. After several months he noticed that he’d started flaking on appointments. So: balance between flexibility and strength in your work or your work-out, pretty much the only smart way to go.
Havi, thanks for motivating me to get to the gym! I had no idea I was at risk for turning into a flake by not lifting weights!
I don’t buy the “unsustainable” theory; within the scope of your lifetime, it very possible to have other people do most of your work for you. There are plenty of people all over the world who will work for what you consider peanuts. If that ever gets unsustainable, you can figure something out at that time.
The point is that outsourcing your have-to-do work can free you up to do the want-to-do work. If you already like what you’re doing, then keep doing it!
I’ve been working on my own for the last 4 years, and there are several things that Mr. Ferriss writes that echo my own experience.
Mahesh
Good point, Mahesh, and thanks for your comment.
I want to second the suggestion that Barbara Sher is a much healthier worklife coach than Ferriss - I loved her books and they motivated me to turn work into joy, not vacation. Ferriss’ concept isn’t even new - the One Minute Manager gets around to the same idea.
Thanks, Michael. I think I need to take my own advice and re-read her book. It’s easy to forget about the work-joy part when you’re under a bunch of deadlines.
What a great point, Mark. I kept thinking about that unsustainability issue, too. If everyone is intent on living a 4 hour workweek, and everyone has a team of people working under them, who is actually doing the work? And who is better off? Is it really the person doing no work? How long until the people doing all the work wise up and beat you at your own game?