4Hour Work Week!

I always thought the 4 Hour Work Week book was a scam. This is a shining example for the adage - Do not judge a book by its covers.

This book is a Whack on the side of the head  ( another good book! ) - made me rethink what I am doing with my life.

Here are the important take aways :

1. Work less for Better Productivity.

I did not end up working 4 Hours per week ( yet :) ). But I definitely work lot lesser now. However I am more productive than before.

What am I doing different?

a. No more FB, Twitter, Google Plus ( adding for posterity's sake...I had to think hard to remember what was the other one )

b. No more checking and responding emails round the clock. I batch them. Best part is some of the issues will get resolved by itself by the time I check. Now I check emails around 10am ( when I come to work ), 2pm ( after lunch ) and 5pm ( before the team goes home )

c. Give aggressive deadlines. I have started biting more than I can chew - and guess what I chew more nowadays! - This is the insight I got from Goal 2. Having cushion is bad.

2. No more news. 

I had stopped reading newspapers long back. But I will keep myself up to date on Twitter and news sites. Of late I was feeling that what I am reading is totally biased and "news" as I always thought was someone's view and that too with an agenda. ( reminds me of a  Hindu Ad I saw in 2000 on Mount Road - we offer news without views ).

So I gave up news entirely. I have no idea what games are being played, what scams are being unearthed - what plan is being hatched for the tax money that I am paying. Instead I hear it from friends or glance at the headlines on the newspapers lying on the floor as I walk down the stairs in my apartment. ( ps : almost 90% read Times of India and 90% of the time there is no news - only a big Ad on the front page ).

3. Non Work Time.

a. I go home by 7:00pm. Earlier there was no end time. Since I am working on a startup I should put 80 hour caffeine filled weeks right? Wrong. We need not burn ourselves to reach our goals - we have to just work smart.

b. I take Sundays off and don't take up any work.

c. I removed the email icon from the home screen of my phone. I can still reach by going to applications but this has reduced the threads running on my head.

d. Most importantly - if I am in a train or just woke up or going to sleep or going for a run and I cannot work on it or respond - I simply don't open emails. This simple discipline has made a big difference to me.

So - this is me. If you don't find me on twitter or facebook and want to talk to me - call me or email me or use ApartmentAdda contact us page like one of my acquaintances! And btw - I will be calling you too - I am going to do social networking once again!





Comments

  1. That explains your absence from FB. Good job. What do you now do in all the time that has been freed up? And when am I going to get that call from you :-)
    -Kannan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha :) I am crunching books at the rate of 1 per week! Slowed down recently on Hermit in the Himalayas ( language is too archaic ). I will call you sometime :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shahul Hameed still lives...

How to become a Java Developer?

Who is lifting the world on their shoulders?