Author – Tim Ferris

Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: WHAT you do, WHEN you do it, WHERE you do it, and with WHOM you do it.
→ “the freedom multiplier”.

Focus on being productive instead of busy.

→ Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking, and indiscriminate action.

💡 It is not the speed, but the direction.
→ What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it. Efficiency is still important, but it is useless unless applied to the right things.

Two synergistic approaches for increasing productivity are inversions of each other:

1. Limit tasks to the important ones to shorten work time (80/20). → important tasks first thing in the morning when you have the highest willpower battery charge.
2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s law). → Never do something tomorrow that you can do today. Always look to decrease the deadline. The task will fill the deadline you give it.

Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.

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?”

Define a to-do list & Define a not-to-do list:

1. What 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
2. What 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcome and happiness?

• If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day, what would you do?
• If you had another heart attack and had to work hours per week, what would you do?
• If you had a gun to your head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time-consuming activities, what would you remove?
• What are the top three activities to fill time to feel as though I’ve been productive?
• Who are the 20% of people who produce 80% of your enjoyment and propel you forward, and which 20% cause 80% of your depression, anger, and second-guessing?

If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.

→ You are the average of the five people associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends.
→ Boldly discard and spend less time with those who are not ambitious, organized, and optimistic.

Develop and maintain a low-information diet.

→ Just as a modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.
→ It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

💡 Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside your influence.

Develop the habit of non-finishing that which is boring or unproductive.

→ More is not better, and stopping something is often 10 times better than finishing it.

It is your job to train those around you to be effective and efficient.

💡 People are smarter than you think.
→ Give them a chance to prove themselves.
→ Do not wait for those who throw away your chance.

💡 Be a member of your target market and don’t speculate what others need or will be willing to buy.

Ask the following questions to find profitable niches:

1. Which social, industry, and professional groups do you belong to, have you belonged to, or do you understand, whether dentists, engineers, rock climbers, recreational cyclists, car restoration aficionados, dancers, or others?
   → Look creatively at your resume, work experience, physical habits, and hobbies, and compile a list of all the groups, past and present, that you can associate yourself with. Look at products and books you own, including online and offline subscriptions, and ask yourself, “What groups of people purchase the same?” Which magazines, websites, and newsletters do you read on a regular basis?
2. Which of the group you identified have their own magazines?
   → Visit a large bookstore such as Barnes & Noble and browse the magazine rack for smaller specialty magazines to brainstorm additional niches. There are literally thousands of occupation- and interest/hobby-specific magazines to choose from. Use Writer’s Market to identify magazine options outside the bookstores. Narrow the groups from question 1 above to those that are reachable through one or two small magazines. It’s not important that these groups all have a lot of money (e.g., golfers)—only that they spend money (amateur athletes, bass fishermen, etc.) on products of some type. Call these magazines, speak to the advertising directors, and tell them that you are considering advertising; ask them to e-mail their current advertising rate card and include both readership numbers and magazine back-issue samples. Search the back issues for repeat advertisers who sell direct-to-consumer via 800 numbers or websites—the more repeat advertisers, and the more frequent their ads, the more profitable a magazine is for them … and will be for us.

Price high and then justify.

→ A price range of $50~200 per sale provides the most profit for the least customer service hassle.
→ Try to aim for a 10x markup.

The most lifestyle for the dollar is underlined:

• Argentina: Buenos Aires, Cordoba
• China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei
• Japan: Tokyo, Osaka
• England: London
• Ireland: Galway
• Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai
• Germany: Berlin, Munich
• Norway: Oslo
• Australia:
• Sydney
• New Zealand: Queenstown
• Italy: Rome, Milan, Florence
• Spain: Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla
• Holland: Amsterdam

Before spending time on a stressful inducing question, big or otherwise, ensure that the answer is “yes” to the following two questions:

1. Have I decided on a single meaning for each term in this question?
2. Can an answer to this question be acted upon to improve things?

If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it.