4-Hour Work Week: Lessons for Writers

I just finished rereading The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferris. It is the sort of book that mixes advice with inspirational stories. Ferris is an entrepreneur who, after nearly killing himself by working 100 hour weeks, devised a method of keeping the wheels of his business running by working the titular four hours. He also found ways to simplify and modify his lifestyle so that he could live quite comfortably and happily on a relatively small budget. I’m not to the point of working four-hour weeks, and I’m not sure if I ever will be, but his advice has helped me streamline my efforts and develop into a “prolific” writer. Here are five lessons that you can take from the book and apply to your writing life.

Stop the Interruptions

It is very difficult to accomplish anything of value when your work environment is chaotic. Multitasking is not conducive to quality work, especially for writers. Find ways to work uninterrupted: modify your work hours, get out of the office, stand up to people who plan useless meetings, send your phone to voice mail, don’t be a slave to your email. The important point is to put a value on your time, and don’t let others take away that value.

Not Every Job is Worth Taking

One of the problems you can face, especially as a freelance writer, is bad clients. It is amazing how the worst paying clients generally turn out to be the hardest clients to please, but even a pain in the ass client who pays well may not be worth it. The best paying client I ever had was one that treated me badly and didn’t respect or even understand the work I did. I put up with it for several months, but in the end I had to say goodbye to the good money and move on. I missed the money (a little) but I didn’t miss the job.

Eliminate, Delegate, Automate

Ferris is a big believer in virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are people who work remotely, often from foreign countries where the pay scale is lower, to perform tasks and solve problems for you. These tasks may be professional or personal. A virtual assistant can do anything from perform research and create charts and graphs to schedule interviews or enter data. If you are out of work, they can even conduct a job search for you. While the thought of a virtual assistant may or may not appeal to you, it is important to take a look at the tasks that take the most time and generate the least progress toward your goals. Determine whether or not they can be eliminated, delegated or automated.

See the World

Writers, especially creative writers, need an occasional change of scenery. This starts with a day spent writing from the nearest coffee shop with a hot spot and can grow until you are spending weeks or months working from a foreign country, living in a place you’d only hoped to visit. The beauty of the Internet and cellular revolutions is that you can work from just about anywhere in the world and as far as your clients know, you’ve never left your office. Those of us who live in some of the richest countries in the world (citizens of the United States, Great Britain and Australia make up the bulk of my readers) will find that the money you make in your home country goes much farther in many other countries. While a permanent move may be more than you want, a few weeks spent on foreign soil (and not as part of some rushed tour group) may be just what you need to recharge your batteries.

Try the Impossible

Everyone says its impossible for an unknown writer to get an article in Esquire, Vanity Fair or Playboy. They also say that Fortune 500 companies never farm out high-paying contracts to individuals. They may or may not be right, but how many of them are actually trying to land these assignments? If you are making a fairly good living from your low-level or mid-level magazines or clients, maybe it is time to reach for something higher. If you are having trouble generating any work at all, then you truly have nothing to lose by chasing the biggest and the best. The beauty of reaching for the near impossible is that it forces you to step up and try harder, to put together the kind of query, article, presentation, proposal, cover letter or resume that you never bothered with before because it didn’t seem worth it. Take the big risks, at least once in a while.

Related links

• Seven Powerful Tips for Maximizing Your Freelance Writing Business (0.375)
• Are You Determined Enough to be a Freelance Writer? (0.375)
• Why Writing Deadlines May Be (Almost) As Good As Money (0.375)
• Successful Freelance Writers Avoid Soul Sucking Meetings (0.318)
• Successful Freelance Writers Say No (0.318)