This time around, we have a bit of a different format, featuring the book that started it all for me, The 4-Hour Workweek. Readers and listeners often ask me what I would change or update, but an equally interesting question is: what wouldn’t I change? What stands the test of time and hasn’t lost any potency? This episode features one of the most important chapters from the audiobook of The 4-Hour Workweek. It includes tools and frameworks that I use to this day, including Pareto’s Law and Parkinson’s Law.
The chapter is narrated by the great voice actor Ray Porter. If you are interested in checking out the rest of the audiobook, which is produced and copyrighted by Blackstone Publishing, you can find it on Audible, Apple, Google, Spotify, Downpour.com, or wherever you find your favorite audiobooks.
Please enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.
This episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted without slowing my Internet speed. All you need to do is download the ExpressVPN app on your computer or smartphone and then use the Internet just as you normally would. Use my link ExpressVPN.com/Tim today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package!
This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality creatine! I’ve long benefitted from creatine for athletic and gym performance, and now I’m increasing my daily intake to enjoy the cognitive benefits as well. A pilot study in Alzheimer’s patients demonstrated that supplementing can increase brain creatine levels in just 8 weeks, improving measures of memory, reasoning, and attention. And a double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that creatine can restore aspects of memory and attention within hours in adults who are sleep deprived. I use Momentous Creatine made with Creapure®, which is sourced from Germany and has the strictest lab standards to ensure it’s at least 99.9% pure. And try Momentous’s Creatine Chews—clean chewable tablets with 1 gram of Creapure® creatine per chew—and their whey protein isolate and magnesium threonate, all of which meet their same, exacting standards. Check out Momentous for yourself and get 35% off your first subscription order with code TIM at LiveMomentous.com/Tim.
This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2025 by Forbes and Wired magazines and best in category by Good Housekeeping, GQ, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders at HelixSleep.com/Tim.
Want to hear another episode that features content straight from The 4-Hour Workweek? Listen here for the three chapters preceding this one that cover how to get uncommon results by doing the opposite, aiming with precision, and aiming for the unrealistic.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Amazon
- How to Use Occam’s Razor without Getting Cut | Farnam Street
- George’s Hack for Looking Busy at Work | Seinfeld
- The 4-Hour Workweek DEAL Framework | Steady Compounding
- Tim Ferriss: Are You Being Effective or Efficient? | Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson
- What Gets Measured Gets Managed? | MOPs and MOEs
- Manual of Political Economy by Vilfredo Pareto | Amazon
- 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle) | Investopedia
- 5 ChatGPT Prompts to Implement The 4-Hour Workweek in Your Business | Forbes
- Why the 9-to-5 Schedule Has Lost Its Place in the Workplace | Fast Company
- Ed Zschau — The Polymath Professor Who Changed My Life | The Tim Ferriss Show #380
- Parkinson’s Law: The ‘Law’ That Explains Why You Can’t Get Anything Done | BBC
- How to Use Parkinson’s Law to Get More Done in Less Time | Lifehack
- Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month | Tim Ferriss
- Jim Rohn: You’re the Average of the Five People You Spend the Most Time With | Business Insider
- How to End a Friendship | Verywell Mind
- Fully Automated Time-Tracking Software | RescueTime
- Multitasking and the Brain | Brighter Minds
- A Simple Countdown Timer | E.ggTimer
- Comfort Challenge #2: Learn to Propose | Tim Ferriss
SHOW NOTES
- [00:05:27] E is for Elimination.
- [00:05:46] The end of time management.
- [00:07:57] How you will use productivity.
- [00:10:36] Being effective vs. being efficient.
- [00:12:12] Pareto and his garden: 80/20 and freedom from futility.
- [00:24:01] The 9-5 Illusion and Parkinson’s Law.
- [00:31:41] A dozen cupcakes and one question.
- [00:34:47] Questions and actions.
- [00:35:05] Define a to-do list and a not-to-do list.
- [00:35:41] If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day, what would you do?
- [00:36:33] If you had a second heart attack and had to work two hours per week, what would you do?
- [00:36:42] If you had a gun to your head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time-consuming activities, what would you remove?
- [00:37:21] What are the top-three activities that you use to fill time to feel as though you’ve been productive?
- [00:37:45] 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?
- [00:40:16] If this is the only thing you accomplish today, will you be satisfied with your day?
- [00:41:47] Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?
- [00:42:25] Do not multitask.
- [00:43:17] Use Parkinson’s Law on a macro and micro level.
- [00:44:45] Comfort challenge: Learn to propose.
- [00:45:39] Lifestyle design in action.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That's how we're gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you're rude, we'll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Your 5 Bullets reminds me that I would love to hear your take on Elon’s tech bros dismantling democracy. You were one of the earliest sanest voices warning about COVID so you could be impactful on this too. Maybe Kara Swisher or Timothy Snyder as a podcast guest? We need sane discussions. These are dangerous times.
SAD
I’m sure someone has already suggested this on X, but just in case… the the “Tyler Twist” with the Theraband Flex Bar is amazing for tennis elbow.
Try north pole magnets for tennis elbow.
I love to experiment with my current 30-hour work week. It’s officially 30, in reality could go up to 60, without creating any tangible extra outcome.
To start with, I am cutting down the list of people I am reaching out to, from 100 a month to 5 whom I genuinely want to connect with and serve.
I am saying NO to any random “hey, how’s it going, let’s catch up”.
I am saying NO to any random “check out this video/article/book”.
And i’ll get to the 20-80 questions right away.
Dude, we are in a constitutional crisis and you’re rattling on about lifestyle shit. Your followers need t know your position on the most critical issue of our time, which is whether we continue to live under the rule of law. TAKE A STAND!
Robert, the false assumption you’re making is that Tim (or anyone reading this) needs to have an opinion on anything. This is very likely the wrong community for your political “activism”.
Hey Tim,
Thanks for this episode and coming back to the basics! For me it was a great reminder of Parkinson’s Law and how important it is to set clear constraints, not just for productivity but for focus and meaning. I was listening to this episode yesterday, and it made me step back and look at my priorities for this year again.
My journey with your work started nearly 15 years ago with the iconic The 4-Hour Workweek, which completely reframed how I saw time, work, and possibility. Then, for the past 10 years, The Tim Ferriss Show has been in my ears, introducing me to people, ideas, and ways of thinking that have shaped my life in ways I could not have predicted.
One of those shifts was realizing that I love long, deep conversations with interesting people. I dreamed that when I grow up and be smarter, better, wiser version of myself, I’ll also be hosting a podcast just like Tim. But then one day I realized that it’s either gonna happen now or never. So, three years ago, I finally started my own podcast, The Genious Zone (in Russian), where I have long-form conversations with people who have found their passion. And even better, I eventually changed careers and became a UX researcher, meaning I now get paid to talk to interesting people. Not a bad outcome!
Another shift was finally writing my first book. ChatGPT for Parents lures readers in with technology but is really a book about love—love for family, love for ourselves, and how we can create space for what truly matters. Your advice to write as if you are talking to a close friend, someone you truly want to help shaped how I approached it. That mindset made all the difference.
So this is just a long-overdue thank you for all the ways you have influenced my thinking and my work over the years.
So looking forward to The Book of No (or what will be the official name?), such a great timing with the topic.
All the best,
Anastasiia-the-forever-fan 🙂
Thank you for being awesome! Thanks for all the the deep work, finding courage in yourself over and over, and constant self discipline that you committed to to be able to arrive at these insights and produce and share these works for others. I have got so much from all your works already and I only found you a few months ago. This particular podcast here gave me – effective over efficient. Among many many others gems. Massive shifts for me already. Sending you gratitude all the way from New Zealand.
Perhaps I misheard at the intro to the chapter from the book, I thought this was going to include some answers to questions about what was still relevant and what wasn’t?
I’m 47 years old and thought I’d likely be happy to live out my days as a kidless serial monogamist. I never actually wanted kids and never really considered it a realistic option given my lifestyle, and I definitely never felt I was missing out on anything. Then two years ago I met the “right” woman, and the overwhelming sense of certainty–and I do mean certainty in the “rightness” of the partnership and the way it snapped into place as compared to many, many previous relationships–and the fact that this time it’s not in any way the type infatuation that will wane and fail to sustain a relationship–has led to us planning to get married (happening in TWO WEEKS!!) and to get pregnant, which happened within like five days of my future wife coming off birth control! And I am CERTAIN and acting with CERTAINTY about ALL of it! That is not in any way my M.O., so the shift in my thinking and attitude and decisiveness is just simply remarkable.
I enjoyed reading the 4-Hour work week. It sounded like a very good topic. I’m sorry though it was more like a podcast Ray Porter. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, his style just does not interest me. I’m fine to be tricked with AI, use your own voice, and throw in F-Bombs. Just my thoughts, keep up the strong work!
Hi Tim,
You called me back when you were writing the 4 Hour Work Week. You interviewed over the phone for an hour regarding our pay for performance sales center. You referred to us in your book as “The Closers” I was the Founder, President & CEO of Triton Technologies.
I wanted to point out to you that the 3 other pair companies you categorized with in your first book were all out of business by your 2nd book. We were the #1 go to sales center for the Media Agencies b/c we delivered more sales for each media dollar spent by our clients allowing the media agencies to buy more media.
Our pay for performance pricing model and our industry leading closing ability. Essentially, If we were not selling we did not get paid, on the other hand our competitors got paid per minute and were getting paid more for non sales then for actual sales.
The key to our success was the highly skilled and effective management team in the 5 key areas of our business.
With my leadership and operational genius along with my team constantly driving superior results, I was able to profitably grow our EBITA and Net Profit whereas after 6 years of operation we sold the company to a Private Equity Firm for a very successful exit.
I just wanted to update you on the rest of the story since our very first call many years ago now.
Tim, Id like to hear from you to catch up. Please reach out when you can. Best regards, Steve