Spending LESS Time Online To Earn MORE...How I Move Onto 4 Hours Work Week...

[jhongren]

Hi,

I have been readjusting my work-at-home lifestyle and thinking that what I have been doing may benefit others...

So here goes....

I have been a person working for as long as 12 hours a day in my full time job and another 6 hours at night when I reached home to focus on my online business.

Initially it was really smooth for me despite such long hours but gradually I find myself spending less time with my wife and my health is deteriorating.

I have sharp shoulder pains now (due to the unhealthy posture of being deskbound) and my eyes feel dry and tired really fast (due to long time straining at the monitor)

Eventually, I asked myself if I am going to be like this for the next 5 to 10 years or as long as my business is running.

I turn to Andy Henry, Jeremy Kelsall and Michael Silvester for advice and these guys are living the 4 hour work week lifestyle.

(I have also been reading 4 hours work week by Tim Ferris and it has already been my 5th reading now.)

What has impacted me is that they are always leveraging on other people's time and have the freedom to spend time and enjoy doing things which they love.

Having heard this, I realised I have become the slave for my business. I can't possibly not think about switching on my laptop whenever I am at home.

I felt chained!!!

Now, what have changed is:

1. I limit everyday 15 minutes to replying emails.

(no distraction such as aimless checking of emails or checking out my friend's latest Facebook updates. Now I reply emails and I instantly off the laptop.

Short emails does not mean low quality...I include a direct answer to the issue, the next 3 steps my coaching students can take immediately and ask for a report back in a few days time)

2. No latop on weekends and I made a point to have outdoor activities with my wife such as cycling by the beach or hunting for some unusuall eateries.

(Spending quality time (not quantity is my #1 priority now)

3. Now I exercise more and make it a point to focus more on building my health than my business.

(Interestingly, my business has been really stable during the last one month of trying out my new lifestyle. So in fact, now I earn more spending less time online)

4. I am bringing my wife to Japan for our second honeymoon on this week and I am using my last month's online earning from advertisement sales and WSO sales to cover all our expenses.

(Rewarding yourself for a well-deserved rest is really crucial to keep us constanly motivated for long term)

These are what I have been doing for the past one month and I must say I feel much better, more recharged and always looking forward to everyday of my life - and of course, our 2 weeks' rest in Japan soon.

So I believe you can too. I hope what I have shared is useful to you and you can benefit from it when you apply it to your life.

John

[Michael Oksa]

Hi John,

I love hearing stories from other successful Warriors. It reminds those who do IM full-time just how wonderful it is, and it shows those who are struggling that it is possible.

Good tips too!

All the best,
Michael Oksa

[kentuckyslone]

I havent quite gotten that far yet, but I used to work on my projects 7 days a week. I would come home from my regular job of 8 or 9 hours and then work as much as 8 or 9 hours at home. It was causing a lot of problems for my wife and I so I decided to start taking at least 2 days off each week and sometimes more.

The "regular" job is history now, I quit that almost 3 years ago and have been doing my "work at home" since. I still take 2 or 3 days off each week to spend with my family and often I just work a few hours during the night.

Hmmmm 4 hours per week huh? I dont know about that, in my case I have way too much to get done for that.

[TimRobinson]

Although I'm sure if Tim could outsource his interviews he would

I love being able to outsource on the cheap and have so much free time. Honestly I see so many people writing article after article when getting home from a full time job and I wonder why they go to all that effort!?

For years the Internet marketing community has been raving on about how you can do everything for free, but why do something yourself when you only have to pay someone else $5 an hour to do it, spending $20 to relax for 4 hours every afternoon sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

I totally agree with your post, Outsourcing is the biggest key to making it rich online, not a single person I know making over $100k a year online does everything themself.

[Chirag]

Great Stuff Mate. Very inspirational!


Chirag

[GlynisG]

If you want more free time, planning you work is very important.
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by Diego Norte

Welcome to life! It's great; isn't it?

During the last two years, I have taken it to an even more extreme. When I want to do a new project, I work a maximum on 2 hours per week to launch it after pondering it for a couple of months while refusing to work on it.

I then refuse to work on it more than 12 weeks at 2 hours per week until I can put it completely on auto-pilot. If I can't put it completely on auto-pilot at the end of 12 weeks, I let it die a peaceful death.

I actually learned from Tim Ferris' mentor about 6 years ago. Tim doesn't publicly talk much about his main mentor so I won't name him either. He doesn't have much of a public name anyway since he refuses to work more than a few hours per year.

Tim actually abandoned the 4 hour work week philosophy when he decided to get famous teaching it. You can't have both (fame and the 4 hour work week). It's one or the other.

That means Tim isn't a good example of what he preaches anymore.

Hi Diego,

I know it is not easy to follow what we preach forever.

Our lives in running our online business will continue to evolve as we continue to learn more secrets from grand masters and gurus.

At least, while Tim still has philosophy then, he was really experiencing his life to the fullest while earning money on autopilot.

In a way, I think he is still following his philosophy because he is giving talks and doing what he really likes.

Cheers,
John

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by Michael Oksa

Hi John,

I love hearing stories from other successful Warriors. It reminds those who do IM full-time just how wonderful it is, and it shows those who are struggling that it is possible.

Good tips too!

All the best,
Michael Oksa

Thanks Michael. We can still create a profitable business while enjoying our time building it AND doing things which we enjoy!

Cheers,
John

[jazzyjeff]

Hi John,

That's great news that you can reconnect with your wife again! That's what life is really all about.

I've been guilty of doing that myself. Spending time on the business and trying to make more money. In doing so, I have neglected a lot of my personal relationships.

That is really neat of you to mention the "four hour workweek" by Timothy Ferris. That book was introduced to me by a coworker. He has a lot of great ideas in the book. Working four hours per week is a personal goal of mine.

[mudmat]

I would love to have the "4 work week" lifestyle. But my business has not really take off so have to work on my online business at night after work..

I would really love to spend more time with my family, girlfriend and friends..

That would really be my dream...

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by Diego Norte

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Tim's lifestyle. I didn't mean to imply that. I just wanted to point out the obvious that he isn't himself an example of what he teaches anymore. As soon as he wrote that book he gave up his four hour work week.

Most of us who have tried the four hour work week end up realizing that productivity goes up with each hour we remove from our work schedule. So it soon becomes a three hour work week and then a two hour work week. Productivity continues to soar so we go to a one hour work week and then end up retiring.

I have successfully retired about four times now. After a few months or a couple of years, something starts to bubble in my wee little brain. Months pass as it takes shape. I remind myself that I am retired and have no need of working again.

I go down to one of the Starbucks that I own (an earlier venture that eventually became a four hour work week and then I retired) and have an iced mocha and the last piece falls into place.

The last piece is knowing exactly what I will be doing with each of those 2 hour chunks for the next 8-12 weeks as I launch and then allow another project to go auto-pilot.

That's just the way it works once you realize that the fewer hours you work, the more you make.

Try it. Measure your productivity in whatever way you choose this week. Maybe record your sales or your net profit or your traffic. Use any metric you want. Also record the number of hours that you work.

Next week, cut it in half. Measure the same metric.

Now ask yourself why you work all of those extra hours if you are more productive with half the time.

Now do it again. It doesn't matter how many times you do it. You will be more productive when you work less hours.

Having "too much to do" is exactly why you need to cut your hours. You will get much more done if you work fewer hours.

Hi Diego,

Thanks so much for your reply.

I believe as we are forced to cut down our hours, we are able to cut down on unnecessary tasks or unimportant tasks and focus on the more important ones (especially on those which can bring in more income)

I believe I have much to learn from you and I love the part you said you have retired more than once.

Cheers,
John

[gunsnroses]

it is really an intresting story and a post..i like it..

[ShayRockhold]

Wonderful post, John - as always!

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by mudmat

I would love to have the "4 work week" lifestyle. But my business has not really take off so have to work on my online business at night after work..

I would really love to spend more time with my family, girlfriend and friends..

That would really be my dream...

I think it does not matter if it is a 4 hour work week or a 8 hour work week or a 12.

What matter most is to do a spring cleaning of our daily routine and to find out which one is important to what we are doing.

I know it is not easy. But it is not impossible.

What can be helpful is "what if I only have 4 hours a day to do so much?"

Draw out a plan on what are the tasks to do and the way to do them productively.

I know many Warriors are very productive in their work too. I would love to hear from you.

[jhongren]

Originally Posted by TimRobinson

Although I'm sure if Tim could outsource his interviews he would

I love being able to outsource on the cheap and have so much free time. Honestly I see so many people writing article after article when getting home from a full time job and I wonder why they go to all that effort!?

For years the Internet marketing community has been raving on about how you can do everything for free, but why do something yourself when you only have to pay someone else $5 an hour to do it, spending $20 to relax for 4 hours every afternoon sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

I totally agree with your post, Outsourcing is the biggest key to making it rich online, not a single person I know making over $100k a year online does everything themself.

Hi Tim,

You are absolutely right.

We always work as a team.

During my early days of Internet Marketing, I slough like a slave for my business.

I feel I didn't own my business. My business run my life.

I did everything by myself from sales page set up, blogging, product creation, writing, submission of articles, list building, coaching and the list goes on and on.

My wife had to always sleep early before me.

She slept at 12am while I slept at 3am or some times 4am!!!

Right now, I have learnt to work as a team and leverage on other people's time (as how Robert Kiyosaki has always advised)

1. Delegate tasks to team members and trust they can do it well.

(In the past, I have always thought I am the best person to do everything. However, I really feel it is not the way. I trust my team members for being able to put everything in place and I do so based on trust and faith)

2. Leverage on professionals.

I am so glad that Michael Silvester advised me to find a professional affiliate manager. I am happy to say that I follow his advice and now I have more time to build my business. It is important to part with our money in getting quality help from professionals.

Be willing to pay for the good work. I also outsourced my copy-writing, ecover design and sales page design.

It really saves me more time and I get better quality of work compared to the ones if I did it myself.

My 2 cents,
John