The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss was one of those books that I picked up at just the right time. I started reading it while transiting to freelancing full time. The 4-Hour Workweek helped me to better understand my own values, priorities, procrastination pitfalls, bad habits, and goals. It was instrumental in helping me to decide what was important and create a new daily routine.

However, I have some problems with the main premise of the book: working for only 4 hours a week. He suggests doing this mostly by cutting out excess, delegating tasks, and relying on recurring income (like an established company or product).

This approach isn’t for me.

I will not hire a virtual assistant to handle my email or do background research for a project for me. I will not offload my work onto people in other countries who are likely poorly paid. I don’t have my own company already going with employees that I can just empower to take on more (of my) responsibility. I’m a writer and an editor, not a CEO.

One of his biggest points is building a system to replace yourself so you can travel the world and spend time doing the things you love, which is great, except for one small thing. I don’t want to to be replaced. I want to make an impact on the world and know that I contributed to making it a better place. I want to inspire change and connect with people.

The amount of people who can actually work four hours a week a support themselves are extremely limited. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t value in this book.

Biggest Takeaways from The 4-Hour Workweek

1. Our system of work and reward is broken in the United States.

2. Piles of money (or things or things bought with debt) should not be the metric for success.

3. Busy is bad.

4. We control our lives. We need to take control.

5. It’s not worth being unhappy for 40-50 years only to have 10-15 years (if that!) of a retirement.

6. Work is not something to suffer through.

7. Our time is poorly spent shuffling papers and going to meetings instead of getting things done and getting out of there.

What I now do differently based on The 4-Hour Workweek

1. Check my email twice a day and never on weekends. Ahh, sweet freedom.

2. Focus on only two critical tasks per day. I may fill my to-do list with 10 things I want to accomplish, but the first two have to get done first. These are usually the bigger items like completing an article, pitching a new client, or finishing my taxes. Both tasks are to be done separately from to start to finish without any interruption. I usually do them first thing in the morning and right after lunch.

3. Schedule my day at least the day before and stick to it. I have been scheduling time to write and to do the main things I need to get done. This helps me kick procrastination and feel like I have structure to my day.

4. Do not just fill time. It’s easy for me to reformat a perfectly good spreadsheet or organize files to feel like I am making progress when really I am just wasting my time. I have been using a Pomodoro timer (more on this soon) to make sure I stay on task and finish things in the time I have set aside from them. No more over-researching a story to the point where I don’t use 80 percent of the things I found and my hourly income for the project plummets (set price for the project divided by the amount of hours I work on it).

5. Give every task/ priority a deadline. Keep the deadline short to stay focused and force action instead of deliberation and procrastination.

6. Track how time is spent. Currently I only do this for projects I am working on for clients, but I would like to start doing it a few days a month to get a better idea of how exactly I spend my time and how I could improve.

7. Make nonfatal or reversible decisions quickly. I am the queen of changing my mind and deliberation. I spent an hour trying to decide between two different brands of practically the same exact product on Amazon yesterday. Such a waste of time for a $15 product. Needless to say, I have a lot of room for improvement.

Key Quotes from The 4-Hour Workweek

“Maximum income from minimal necessary effort is the primary goal.”

“At least three times per day at scheduled times ask ‘Am I being productive or just active? Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?'”

“Stop asking for opinions and start proposing solutions.”

“Be decisive.” (I hear you Tim. I will work on this.)

Bottom Line

Read it. I learned a ton, and it was an interesting read.

February was a month of heavy hitters and potential life changers.

Still Alice
Mental illness is terrifying, especially when it is erasing your memories and your core understanding of who you are. Still Alice gives a heartbreaking inside view of what it’s like to live with Alzheimer’s. Rumor has it it’s also a movie or something.

Undecided: How to Ditch the Endless Quest for Perfect and Find the Career–and Life–That’s Right for You
My college advisor and professor wrote this book while I was her student at Santa Clara. I started reading it when it came out my junior year, but I just couldn’t get behind it. I was so sure of myself then and of what I wanted to be doing that I couldn’t connect with the characters who seemed to be so lost and so desperate for someone else to help them define their success.

I didn’t have a sudden realization of what I want to do while reading it. Instead, I got the feeling that no one knows what they want to do, ever. You just do what seems right in the moment, you take the next step just to see where it takes you. This book helped me realize that only I could decide what was right for me – nothing else matters.

Home is Burning
Due to some weird fate of the library, this book and Still Alice arrived at the same time. It was a lot to take in all at once. I had to worry that I had Alzheimer’s and some other terrifying, terminal disease simultaneously. With that said, I wanted to laugh with this book, I wanted to understand the author and his experience, but more often than not I was frustrated with him. He paints himself (and most of his family) in a pretty terrible light. Unless you like really dark humor, I wouldn’t recommend this one.

The Four Hour Workweek
This book was the last little shove I needed to fully embrace going freelance and seeing what I can make of myself on my own. I had heard about it many times before, and I always brushed it off as some sort of unattainable, unrealistic, crazy fad diet of a lifestyle. Which isn’t totally wrong, but it leaves out all of the important nuggets (like beating your email) and the things that anyone can apply to their lives without dropping everything and living in Thailand for a year (although I think I would like the weather…). This book made such a dent that it has its own post.

All the Light We Cannot See
I got so lost in this book that I couldn’t be found even when I wasn’t reading it. There were times where the whole world fell away. Hours went by without me realizing. I couldn’t pull myself out of this book.

As a general rule I avoid historical fiction. I find them tiresome and too full of romanticized “truth” for my taste. This one made me reconsider my rule. It broke my heart and made me imagine and think about so many things I wish to never entertain. But it was powerful and upsetting in the best kind of way. Human beings do horrible things to each other, but they also reach out and put everything on the line for someone else.

This past month was a pretty big reading month for me. Since I still can’t run or bike or hike or do much outside of a swimming pool or my best zombie impression on the treadmill, I’ve had a lot of extra time to cuddle up with a book. (It sure makes the banishment from outdoor fun easier to swallow).

The Lost Boys Symphony I fell hard for this book. I’m a sucker for anything that makes me question what is reality, and this book fit perfectly. I couldn’t put it down. The descriptions of sounds were incredible, and it only made me question my own sanity a few times.

Binge Before you start, I know I live under a rock. I had no idea who Tyler Oakley was when I picked up this book. I requested it from the library because I had seen it everywhere and Goodreads thought I would like it. If you want a crazy look at what it’s like to be a YouTube/social star and one of the most prominent LGBTQ+ voices, it’s worth the read. Bonus feature: Likely not the intent, but it inspired me to think outside the traditional career box a bit more (don’t worry, I already know I’m not fit for YouTube stardom).

Domestic Violets Due to my own ironic timing, the main character Tom and I had more in common than I expected when I requested the book. I found myself rooting for him even when I wanted to give him a solid lecture. It helped immensely that we speak the same language – sarcasm.

Hatching Twitter I have feelings about tech companies and their tendency to create egotistical “celebrities.” And I try pretty hard to know very little about company gossip and drama.

With that said, I enjoyed this book, and I blame Nick Bilton for it. Why do you have to write so well, Nick? Halfway through the book Twitter (and the New York Times, not cool guys) spoiled quite a few things with their constant chatter about Jack Dorsey. The biggest lesson? Don’t start a company with your friends. Oh, and no job is permanent.

Growth Hacker Marketing Crazy short, this book made me see my past work experience (and one of my data-minded coworkers) in a completely different way.

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity This book was a continuation of my creativity quest. Hugh MacLeod is another champion of keeping your day job and your creativity separate. Also, there are pictures.

One of my goals for this year was to make more time to read. In the fall I was able to trade in a long commute for more time curled up with a book. There were times where I was tearing through three books at once and other’s where reading felt like weeding an overgrown garden.

From life-changers to guilty pleasures, this year was full of great reads. I’ve included pictures of everything I read this year (thanks to GoodReads), and pulled out some of my favorites (in chronological order).

My 2015 top reads:

1. The Goldfinch

2. I’ll Give You The Sun. Weird, captivating.

3. Me Before You. There’s a reason everyone read it this year.

4. Steal Like an Artist. This is one of the few on this list that I would consider possibly life-changing. It’s a short, visual book, and yet every page I thought “This is it. This is what I need.” Austin Kleon brought fun back to my creativity and inspired me to try new things.

5. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. I saw the movie first and I couldn’t get the story out of my head. The book was even better (which is saying something given how great the movie was).

6. Station Eleven. I avoid dystopia (especially after Margaret Atwood’s uplifting Oryx and Crake), but I devoured this book. I haven’t thought of an airplane the same since.

7. Irritable Hearts, a PTSD Love Story. Yeah… count me out for international tk reporting. I’m good.

8. The Martian. I’ve said a lot about it.

9. Creativity, Inc. gives me hope for a creative future at work.

10. The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Read in a single sitting on a flight from Madrid to Toronto.

11. Essentialism.

12. The Opposite of Loneliness. Life’s short, much too short for some us. Don’t waste it with things you don’t love.

13. Big Magic. Another life-changer/ eye-opener. I’ve recommitted to journaling and frequent blogging thanks to this one.

14. We Are Called to Rise. I cried.

15. Bad Feminist. Hilarious. Heart-breaking. Inspiring. Anger-inducing.

This year I went on a bit of a creativity reading binge. Once I got started I just couldn’t stop.

I had been feeling a bit frustrated with my work and I could never seem to think about anything that interested me to write about. My to-read list was full of books on creativity and writing, so I naturally started to slowly dig into them.

They each opened up my mind in some way or changed the way I think about think creativity in one way or another.

Steal Like an Artist

This book sat on my list for well over a year. I thought it would be a little picture book about making physical art (like paintings or something). I had no expectations – And I annoyed everyone I knew while reading it. I was constantly pulling out quotes and forcing people to listen to me. I honestly made notes in my journal about what Austin Kleon said I needed to do. I’m still trying to incorporate his incredibly unique and inspiring journaling techniques into my boring notebooks. (I’m vaguely considering picking myself up one of these, but it feels a little too much like a diary I had in third grade… and it freaks me out). I definitely want to learn how to track my thoughts and the things I’m curious about like Austin does. Also, swipe file is genius. Thank you.

“Write the book you want to read.”

“If you have two or three real passions, don’t feel like you have to pick and choose between them.”

Creativity Inc.

Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull gave me hope for the future. It reminded me that people all over the world have creative jobs that they love. But it’s still work. They still struggle and disagree with their boss and feel lost. Despite some initial disappointment that the book wasn’t more focused on personal creativity, I got a lot out of it.

“You are not your idea.” Criticism is okay, good even.

“I believe life should not be easy. We’re meant to push ourselves and try new things – which will definitely make us feel uncomfortable.”

“It takes such discipline – some people even call it practice – to turn off that inner critic in adulthood and return to a place of openness.”

“I’m a firm believe in the chaotic nature of the creative process needing to be chaotic. If we put too much structure on it, we kill it.”

“Don’t wait for things to be perfect before you share them with others.”

Ed reminded me to have confidence in myself and to not fight so hard. I’m always trying to make things perfect and control every outcome instead of just sitting back and experiencing what is happening to me or around me. Creativity is messy. Embrace it!

Big Magic

I’ve already had a lot to say about this book. So I’m going to just pull out the main things that I can’t stop thinking about.

1. Do not expect your art to support you. Some things are meant to just be enjoyable and free from money or pressure to perform.

2. Write every day. It’s actually where the idea for the 30 for 30 challenge came from.

Have you read something else that inspired you? Or enjoyed one of these books? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.