The Book That Made Me Quit My Corporate Job
5 powerful lessons from The 4-Hour Workweek
I was desperate to escape
Not so long ago I was working a typical 9–5 job in Melbourne, Australia. I had good pay, nice colleagues, a low workload, and an epic view from the office.
It was the perfect job — as far as jobs go. And I know a thing or two about jobs that aren’t. I’ve worked in six advertising agencies across the globe. I’ve seen overwork, exhaustion, bullying, despondency, and more office politics than you can shake an unused HR handbook at.
This job was as good as it would ever get.
Sure, I could get a promotion, increase my salary, and get a corner office, but ultimately this was it: selling my soul for money.
Quitting the best job I ever had
That’s when I discovered a book that would change my life forever.
That book was The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.
In it are details about what Tim coins the “new rich” — a group of people who aren’t set with the status quo. The new rich are people who don’t want to wait until retirement to travel. People who want to live an extraordinary life now. People who believe in working for themselves, in doing what they enjoy, and in productivity above all else.
Not so long after my now-husband and I took a trip to Bali and fell in love with it. It was the push we needed. We knew that this was the type of life we really wanted – working productively, but on our own terms. Spending life in places that inspired us, not drained us. Living creatively, flexibly, and in alignment with our skills.
So… I quit
I quit my 9–5 job. We sold all of our possessions, packed our bags, started a consulting business, and went to Southeast Asia to live our digital nomad dreams.
We started our days with sunrise beach workouts, took calls from hammocks, wrote from vegan cafes, and spent our afternoons snorkeling with turtles. That’s not an exaggeration – it’s literally what we did.
We spent time in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, The Phillippines, and New Zealand while getting results for our clients and feeling more inspired than ever before. It was one of the best years of our lives.
These days we live on Australia’s Gold Coast. I write freelance for a living, have control over my schedule, and can’t imagine ever working 9–5 again.
5 powerful lessons from The 4-Hour Workweek
So what do you need to know from the book? I’ve distilled the key lessons.
Tim Ferris’ method is fairly simple: automate your life and gain back time.
The problem is we waste too much time. We eke out tasks. We completely underestimate what we can really achieve in our lives.
These are the key takeaways from the book that enabled me to quit my job and work productively (and flexibly) on my own:
1. Get real about what needs to be done
In the book, Tim asks us to get real about what really needs to be done. He suggests having no more than one important task to complete each day. It sounds tricky, but when we get honest with ourselves, it becomes clear that many of the so-called ‘essential’ tasks we complete each day are actually products of unproductivity.
By removing extra tasks that aren’t productive, I now focus on one or two high-priority tasks each day. And while I may complete additional things, I don’t even think about anything else until my key tasks for the day are actioned.
2. Focus on results: leave the rest
It’s no secret that workplaces can be incredibly inefficient. I used to work in email marketing sending thousands of emails to customers each week. Yet it only occurred to me after reading The Four Hour Work Week, that so many of the emails being sent weren’t backed up with results.
Now, at the time, I was simply following orders for a company. But, once I got control of my life, I knew that my tasks must be matched by results.
I ask myself these questions to keep my business efficient and results-focused.
Which of my tasks is leading to the most income?
Which clients are most efficient to work for?
Where does the majority of inbound work come from?
3. Set shorter deadlines
There’s a theory, known as Parkinson’s Law, that work expands to fill the time available. So, if we have until next Wednesday to complete a task, we’ll spend much longer completing it, than say if we had to get it done by tomorrow.
To keep projects moving off my desk, I set short deadlines (regardless of what the actual deadline is). I’ve been shocked at how quickly I can write an article when I set myself an ‘unreasonable’ deadline. This has allowed my productivity to increase exponentially and granted me more hours in the day to do what I enjoy.
This lesson alone has changed my work life more than anything else.
4. Timeblocking for tasks
When it comes to emails, Tim is ruthless. He recommends checking email only once or a maximum of twice per day.
And while I can’t say I’ve implemented such a stringent approach to emails, I have changed how I deal with incoming tasks and requests. Instead of continually checking my email, I check my inbox every few hours. I don’t treat mail on a first-come-first-served basis anymore either.
I prioritize tasks based on the timelines I set myself and what’s going to be the most productive. I also give greater weight to the tasks which provide greater results. It gives me much greater control over what needs to be done and ultimately saves me time.
5. No more meetings
When I quit my job, my biggest goal was to all but eliminate meetings. And I believe the no-meetings rule is one of the most important on the list.
While I haven’t been able to exile Zoom calls entirely, by holding almost no meetings, I can focus on being productive rather than talking in circles with people who are unfocused.
I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve sat in over the years thinking:
What have we achieved here?
Could this have been summarised in an email?
Do all 16 of us need to be in this room right now?
How much is the meeting costing the company in lost productivity?
Now I only hop on a call if it’s going to make things quicker. I keep calls to 30 minutes or less. And I never take calls between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. (my most productive hours).
Have you read The 4-Hour Work Week? What were your learnings?
Learn more about how I quit my 9-5 job.
Hi 👋, I’m Chloe.
I write here and on Medium about books, philosophy, meditation, and mindfulness.