Book Title: The 4-Hour Work Week
Author:Timothy Ferries Reviewed by: Jason Cheng Qi Quan
Experience loss in life? Feeling miserable and unsatisfied? It is normal. This is life. Fear, I can't voice and lack of peace keeps you from the life you want to live. Instead of avoiding it, we can try to accept it and eliminate all the mental clutters in our life. This leads us to clarity and peaceful life.
Elimination is an essential process in our life. When our mind is overloaded, we need to clean our unnecessary thoughts and idea so that we have the space to generate a creative idea or solve difficult problems. Nowadays,we are receiving a massive amount of information from social media and the internet. We must learn how to get reliable information that adds value to us. There are two ways to eliminate our toxic waste and unncessary activity that lead us to a peaceful life.
First way is applying the pareto principle. The principle is very useful because we can get our expected output by just applying a small amount of effort.
Is it possible? Yes.Everyone of us is busy and always takes it as an excuse to avoid thinking about our own life. It is undeniable that our life is always busy. Don't always think that if you have more time in the future. If we are always stuck at think "I don't have time", you will never have time.Focus on productivity and output instead of busyness.
Here are examples that show the application of the principle.
1. 20% of your activities will lead to 80% of happiness
2. 20% of your friends motivate you and recharge your positive energy.
3. 20% of your efforts lead you to 80% of your success.
How to do it? Spend your time on your most favourite activity that brings the ultimate happiness. Secondly, spend your time with your most trusted friend to strengthen your relationship. Lastly, invest your energy and effort in the action to lead to your desired life goal.
It is amazing , right? You will have extra time and energy if you apply this Pareto principle. Why do we need more time and energy? It is to pursue our dreams! Each of us need to achieve our dreams desperately. Take a break and rethink how you spend your time. Are you happy when you are doing the task? Are you feeling frustrated or happy? Think about it. Apply the Pareto principle will help you increase your efficiency and bring more happiness into your life. If you are doing your dream job, congratulations! You can use this free time to enjoy your hobby. However, if you are lost, frustrated and unhappy, stay calm and apply the Parento principle to spend some time reflect your life and design your ideal life.
Second way is to group the task. First step is to identify important task of the day. Next, group all similar tasks. Group the miscellaneous task that is under the same category or the task can be done sequentially. Then, execute it at the same time. This reduces the chance of making mistakes and easier to get into the flow state. Flow state is the state that you are indulging in the task.When you concentrate on your energy and execute it, you can experience the flow! Task grouping helps you eliminate the task switching time.
Example:
1. Reply message at a specific timeframe.
2. Washing plate after having a dinner
3. Clean the bedroom and bathroom
Phone messaging is a very common task in our daily life. Most people straight away reply to messages when receiving notifications. This is not a good practice because people switch their attention frequently. Actually, there is rare emergency message. The more frequent you switch the task, the less productive you are. Therefore, try to schedule the reply message time in one day.Set a specific time to reply all messages. It will increase your productivity.
Next is to avoid multitasking. It is undeniable that we have tons of work to complete. Multitasking looks like you are saving your time to finish your work. However,the results of the work will drop significantly. You will feel exhausted and experience a bad mood because your mind is overloaded. Prioritise the task and focus on one task at one time.
Thirdly,practice the art of non-finishing. Job is never finished. If you have to spend few hours to think how to solve difficult problems, please switch your task and focus on your favourite activity.it is meaningless to continue because there is no answer in the next few hours. Instead of wasting time there, you must have the courage to take a break. Switch attention to your most enjoyable activity and then come back again when necessary. For example, you can listen to favourite music when you stress. Yoga, meditation, and dancing are some enjoyable activitiea to enlighten your day. This can make you happier and eliminate the stressful and non-productive period.
Sometimes I can't let go of the task because I want to meet the deadline. However, it is not good for mental health in long term. Now I practice switch tasks when necessary to recharge my energy. Switch task from programming to dancing is the form of relaxation because your left brain is rest and activate your right brain!
Lastly, Life is short and we only live once. Sometimes you must learn how to give and take. Let go of all the things do not belong to you and appreciate what you have right now. Eliminate all the tasks that are non-value-added and focus on the task that can bring you satisfaction and happiness!
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