What Happens When You Combine The 4 Hour Work Week With The 10X Rule?

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Mind = Blown.. is what happens.

These two highly-praised books present perhaps the most conflicting advice for any struggling entrepreneur, founder, business owner, etc. ever.

The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris was a revolutionary book when it first came out (back in 2007). It showed people how to reduce all the inefficiencies of their daily work lives, so that life became an almost effortless breeze – where if you got it really dialed in – you might only have four hours of real work a week.

A lot of the book has to do with outsourcing work, compartmentalizing time for answering emails (opposed to living in your inbox), reducing idle chit-chat / phone calls and really re-examining what you want out of life and work.

The book is still an excellent resource and always a good reminder to break old bad habits. You’ll free up a lot of time if you follow Tim’s advice.

Now, The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone isn’t really about productivity or life hacks – but more about how you’re going to have to work 10 times harder (than you anticipate) if you really want to achieve success and you always have to be thirsty for more.

So, if you become a disciple of both of these books, you’ll be faced with a problem. Because working only four hours a week vs. working ten times harder seems to present a slight conflict :).

You look at Tim’s book cover and you’re sold a life of spending your days in a hammock, doing million dollar deals while sipping daiquiris. Conversely, you look at Grant’s cover – with its dead-serious ALL CAPS BOLD TYPEFACE – and you’re looking at a life of stress, intensity and maybe even unhappiness.

The Hilarious Math I Came Across

One day I was thinking about these two books and the conflict I described above arose in my head. Then I said to myself, “Wait. What’s 4 hours TIMES 10…40 hours!”

“You’re supposed to work your normal 40 hours to achieve success. That’s it!”

And I laughed to myself. I didn’t take the result too seriously. But it kind of makes sense.

Here’s why..

My Takeaway

You’re going to have to work pretty damn hard if you want to achieve any sort of extraordinary success. There is really no way around it. And by doing the hard work that no one else wants to do, you sort of eliminate competition that way. Seth Godin talks about this from time to time. So that falls in line with the 10X Rule line of thinking.

If you want this success to actually happen, you also have to diligently follow Tim Ferris’ advice.

You’re going to want to design your daily work-life to run as effortlessly as possible. It’s the best way to secure a method for making your achievement happen. Otherwise, you’re going to add more friction, time-required, stress – basically all the stuff that will end up shutting down whatever you’re doing.

So for the best possible shot of achieving whatever you’re trying to achieve, follow Tim’s advice:

• Only spend – say 30 minutes – a day answering emails. Schedule a time to do it. You might want to consider doing it during off-hours, so you don’t get immediate replies. Don’t live in your email inbox. It’s a complete distraction and as Larry Kim says, “Emails build a to-do list that other people create for you.”
• During working hours, keep phone calls and chats concise and to the point.
• Delegate and outsource at all costs. It will force you to build process (which means a foundation exists which can be improved upon).
• Read his book for the rest of his tips :). These are just a few that stand out to me right now as I write this.

So Is 40 Still The Magic Number?

I kinda think so. After sitting down for a straight 40 hours of pure work (no distractions, lunches, social media breaks), your energy levels may start to dwindle and your work product can suffer.

Putting your nose to the grindstone for a straight 8 hours a day isn’t as easy as you may think. That means no distractions, no social media breaks, no text conversations, no water cooler talk, maybe a tight one-hour lunch in the middle.

And what that really means is it’s at least a 12 hour day realistically. That’s why you need to follow Tim’s advice to really cut the fat out of the useless stuff that gets in the way of your everyday routine.

It may save you stress; it may save your business!

Final Tip: Watch The Caffeine

I have a theory that caffeine affects people differently. I’m a pretty regular coffee drinker, but I am slightly sensitive to caffeine. I’ve noticed if I’ve had a bit too much, I’ll get all the energy I need, but I can lose focus quickly and bounce from task to task – which isn’t necessarily productive.

This experiment on giving spiders caffeine is a good reminder for me to cut back sometimes :).

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