I want to start out by saying that the 4-Hour Workweek is one of the most important books ever written.

You can read all the personal development stuff, visit all the gurus or buy Personal Power by Tony Robbins but where the rubber meets the road is the measurable difference it makes to your quality of life. Enter Mr Timothy Ferris.

His background is basically that of a typical entrepreneur who was working 80 hours per week and about to go into meltdown when he took a day away from work and asked himself what would happen if he went on a holiday. He looked at the worst case scenario and realized that it wasn't as bad as he thought. He outsourced his entire operations, sacked his worst customers and built a business which rush without him. But building an E-Myth style business is only part of the story. Tim wants us to take a hard look at our life and our daily activities. He wants us to cut the time consuming crap out, focus on the lifestyle we want and then work on achieving it.

The lifestyle of the New Rich (NR) is all about streamlining what we do, creating a muse which pays us automatically every week and living the millionaire lifestyle BEFORE we have a million dollars in the bank. Cash isn't the key, cashflow is.

The book is divided into:

• Definition
• Elimination
• Automation
• Liberation

You follow the steps but mix up the order if you are an employee. Ferris gives practical tips and case studies on how to negotiate working from home agreements and then liberate yourself completely. One case study involves a guy who delegated all his work to another country and went to China for six weeks without his boss even noticing!

The goal according to Ferris is not to be the boss or employee but the owner. 'To own the trains and have someone else ensure they run on time.'

Quotes from the book:

• 'Usually, what we most fear doing is what we most need to do'
• 'I had been slaving away with 15-hour days seven days per week, feeling completely overwhelmed and generally helpless'
• Lack of time is actually lack of priorities
• The first step is to develop and maintain a low-information diet (this tip alone saves me a day a week)
• 'Do not work harder when the solution is working smarter'

The best tip from the book is to limit e-mail to twice per day. Doing this allows to to say focused. Checking e-mails every time they arrive is a terrible habit to have in terms of effectiveness. If I can run three companies and do this then you can.

Resources recommended in the book:

Rescue Time - Puts post it notes onto your PC to keep you on track www.rescuetime.com

Egg Timer - Limits time you spend per url http://e.ggtimer.com

Evernote - put all your sites and documents in one place - www.evernote.com

TimeDriver - lets others make appointments with you based upon your calendar - www.timedriver.com

You can find out more about Tim at www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

Make sure you buy the revised and expanded version.