Bee Muses

The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

The above is a title for a book by a man called Tim Ferriss.  This is a very clever title for a book but the title is totally misleading (in my view).  The book itself is very interesting and has lots of great ideas on how to automate as much of your work as possible.  However, the idea that you can get all your work done in just 4 hours per week is wishful thinking.   One of the key attributes of successful entrepreneurs is that they work hard.  As a title for a book however it’s great as it grabs your attention!  The book is a great read and well worth buying.  I think what this book is all about is working smarter and getting more done.  Working smarter frees us to be more creative and spend more time doing things that we would love to do – sports, leisure, hobbies etc.

You can find out more on Tim Ferriss (who appears to be quite a talented guy) by searching for him on YouTube.

If you would like to buy the book the ‘Four Hour Workweek’ – please click on the link below:

 

Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen

One of the most useful books in the time management field is by David Allen called ‘Getting Things Done’.

I read this book number of years ago, and it is an excellent book on how to be more productive with your time.  As with all books, it's easy to read but to actually implement what it says is the real challenge!!  I think it’s the type of book someone needs to refer back too on a constant basis to fully understand what it says. 

This book contains excellent advice and ideas on how to be more productive.  One of the key concepts in the book is that we have to get things out of our minds and into a trusted system where we can deal with the things we have to do.   If we have to try and store ‘to dos’ in our head this is not very efficient and we forget things and this causes us stress.  Once we know that our ideas/tasks and appointments are stored out of our mind in a system that we can trust we are much more relaxed and much more productive.  

The GTD system should work in a smooth manner so that we know what we have to do in any particular context.  An example is that if you are out shopping then your system should remind you of what you need to be reminded of in that particular context (such as what you need to buy) and not remind you of things that you cannot act on, such as things you need to do while sitting at a computer etc.

The key is to develop a good system which will work in the background without a lot of effort.  There are many possible tools such as computer software, planners, portable devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) that we can use to implement GTD.  The big challenge that I have found is that we can spend so much time tweaking our system that we have no time left to do anything!  This is the big danger of GTD methodology.  I personally have implemented aspects of this methodology but have not completely mastered it.  I do however intend to re-read this book, and to try and implement the methodology more fully.  Overall this is an excellent book, which if implemented in full will change your life!  I fully recommend it!

You can purchase a book by clicking on the link below: