I always thought the 4 Hour Work Week book was a scam. This is a shining example for the adage – Do not judge a book by its covers.

This book is a Whack on the side of the head  ( another good book! ) – made me rethink what I am doing with my life.

Here are the important take aways :

1. Work less for Better Productivity.

I did not end up working 4 Hours per week ( yet 🙂 ). But I definitely work lot lesser now. However I am more productive than before.

What am I doing different?

a. No more FB, Twitter, Google Plus ( adding for posterity’s sake…I had to think hard to remember what was the other one )

b. No more checking and responding emails round the clock. I batch them. Best part is some of the issues will get resolved by itself by the time I check. Now I check emails around 10am ( when I come to work ), 2pm ( after lunch ) and 5pm ( before the team goes home )

c. Give aggressive deadlines. I have started biting more than I can chew – and guess what I chew more nowadays! – This is the insight I got from Goal 2. Having cushion is bad.

2. No more news. 

I had stopped reading newspapers long back. But I will keep myself up to date on Twitter and news sites. Of late I was feeling that what I am reading is totally biased and “news” as I always thought was someone’s view and that too with an agenda. ( reminds me of a  Hindu Ad I saw in 2000 on Mount Road – we offer news without views ).

So I gave up news entirely. I have no idea what games are being played, what scams are being unearthed – what plan is being hatched for the tax money that I am paying. Instead I hear it from friends or glance at the headlines on the newspapers lying on the floor as I walk down the stairs in my apartment. ( ps : almost 90% read Times of India and 90% of the time there is no news – only a big Ad on the front page ).

3. Non Work Time.

a. I go home by 7:00pm. Earlier there was no end time. Since I am working on a startup I should put 80 hour caffeine filled weeks right? Wrong. We need not burn ourselves to reach our goals – we have to just work smart.

b. I take Sundays off and don’t take up any work.

c. I removed the email icon from the home screen of my phone. I can still reach by going to applications but this has reduced the threads running on my head.

d. Most importantly – if I am in a train or just woke up or going to sleep or going for a run and I cannot work on it or respond – I simply don’t open emails. This simple discipline has made a big difference to me.

So – this is me. If you don’t find me on twitter or facebook and want to talk to me – call me or email me or use ApartmentAdda contact us page like one of my acquaintances! And btw – I will be calling you too – I am going to do social networking once again!