#809: The 4-Hour Workweek Tools That Still Work — The Art of Refusal and The Low-Information Diet

If you’ve been struggling to concentrate, journalist Johann Hari wants you to know that you’re not alone—and the struggle isn’t your fault. In Stolen Focus, Hari makes the case that we have a societal attention crisis: We’re all losing our ability to concentrate, which means we can't progress on our individual goals, and we can’t collectively confront the major challenges humanity faces.

Hari argues that our attention crisis is the result of outside forces stealing our focus, not the fact that we’re not trying hard enough to concentrate. He examines these forces, including everything from our food to the economy, and unlike other authors writing about distraction, he proposes societal solutions rather than individual tips.

In this guide, we’ll explore Hari’s evidence of an attention crisis, the seven factors causing this crisis, and his three-part solution. We’ll also share suggestions for action based on Hari’s insights, as well as explore perspectives from other authors that complement his ideas.

Many people want to retire as millionaires so that they have the time and money to travel, buy luxury cars and homes, or visit with their friends and families. However, you don’t need to be a millionaire to do all these things. You don’t even need to retire.

In The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur, consultant, and life coach Tim Ferriss explains how anyone can live the retired millionaire lifestyle by building their own business, automating it, and then collecting the income while they go off to live their dreams. In this guide, we’ll describe each of Ferriss’s steps to creating this life. We’ll also examine why some of his recommendations are particularly effective and explore alternatives and counterarguments to other suggestions.

Many of us are glued to our smartphones, tablets, and laptops, to the point that we’ve lost control of how we spend our time and attention. We feel overpowered and exhausted by the multitude of digital tools at our fingertips, including smartphones and tablets, websites, addictive apps, and social media platforms. Meanwhile, tech companies continue to invest major resources into making their products and services addictive so that we’ll continue scrolling and tapping.

This book explains how you can transform your tech habits by adopting digital minimalism, which aims to maximize the benefits of technology and avoid the pitfalls by identifying your values and determining how to use technology to support them. Learn how tech companies use human psychology to make their apps addictive, how likes and comments are weakening your relationship, and why trading your smartphone for a dumb phone could change your life.

Have you ever been frustrated that some people don’t consider developers “professionals?” These people trust lawyers to meet deadlines, or doctors to keep up with the cutting edge of their fields, but when it comes to programmers, they think they have to babysit and micromanage them.

Programmers can be just as professional as any other worker, and in The Clean Coder, professional developer Robert C. Martin will teach you how. You’ll learn how to commit to professional development, discipline, honesty, and communication, and you’ll learn to become an efficient team member and mentor.

While many business books tell you how to manage other people, this 1966 classic by management expert Peter F. Drucker explains how to manage yourself to be effective. Effectiveness is key to individual and organizational success. Without it, other attributes, such as talent, intelligence, knowledge, and hard work, are useless.

Drucker says anyone can learn five practices for effectiveness: managing your time, focusing on just a few key tasks, making a unique contribution, maximizing your strengths, and making sound decisions. He explains how to implement these practices, which have remained relevant for over 50 years, even as technology and organizations have evolved. This guide examines how Drucker’s ideas on effectiveness hold up today and how others have built on them.

Many people want to retire as millionaires so that they have the time and money to travel, buy luxury cars and homes, or visit with their friends and families. However, you don’t need to be a millionaire to do all these things. You don’t even need to retire.

In The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur, consultant, and life coach Tim Ferriss explains how anyone can live the retired millionaire lifestyle by building their own business, automating it, and then collecting the income while they go off to live their dreams. In this guide, we’ll describe each of Ferriss’s steps to creating this life. We’ll also examine why some of his recommendations are particularly effective and explore alternatives and counterarguments to other suggestions.

In today’s fast-paced world, many of us are overwhelmed by an endless stream of repetitive, time-consuming tasks that drain our energy and distract us from more meaningful work.

In Automate Your Busywork, entrepreneur and productivity expert Aytekin Tank argues that you don’t have to resign yourself to handling tedious chores that consume your time and mental resources. Instead, you can leverage automation tools to free up space for focusing on work that truly matters to you.

This guide discusses Tank’s advice for conquering monotonous labor and achieving greater productivity. We’ll explain how to:

• Identify routine tasks and how they fit into large processes
• Design efficient processes to streamline your work
• Implement digital tools to handle routine duties automatically
• Refine your automated systems for optimal performance

Additionally, we’ll expand upon Tank’s ideas with insights and actionable advice from productivity and automation technology experts.

Many people want to retire as millionaires so that they have the time and money to travel, buy luxury cars and homes, or visit with their friends and families. However, you don’t need to be a millionaire to do all these things. You don’t even need to retire.

In The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur, consultant, and life coach Tim Ferriss explains how anyone can live the retired millionaire lifestyle by building their own business, automating it, and then collecting the income while they go off to live their dreams. In this guide, we’ll describe each of Ferriss’s steps to creating this life. We’ll also examine why some of his recommendations are particularly effective and explore alternatives and counterarguments to other suggestions.

Modern society constantly pushes us to achieve more, while at the same time offering more distractions to siphon away our time and energy. Free to Focus offers a solution to this paradox: Achieve more by doing less. Leadership and productivity expert Michael Hyatt suggests that you streamline your schedule and eliminate as many tasks as possible—leaving you free to focus on what really matters.

In this guide, we’ll explain Hyatt’s definition of productivity, which emphasizes what you get done rather than just how much you get done. We’ll then introduce the Productivity Matrix, a crucial tool for determining how you could spend your time more effectively. Finally, we’ll discuss four strategies for maximizing your productivity.

Our commentary will compare Hyatt’s ideas with those of other influential productivity guides, such as Stephen R. Covey’s First Things First and Ali Abdaal’s Feel-Good Productivity. We’ll also suggest some steps to help you get started on your personal journey of productivity.