This version should allow multiple hide statements in the same post. This is a test of that functionality.

The first line below is going to be hidden for those below User Level 2.

Here’s another hide statement:

This seems to work! Download the new version of the plugin here (altho it might take time for the WordPress Plugin SVN to update):

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/show-user-level-content/

Enjoy, and provide feedback!

In a few past posts, I mentioned that my primary task towards achieving the goals of the Four Hour Work Week is to reduce my 60+ hour work week down to 20. As evidenced by my recent trip to Denmark and Sweden, I was able to successfully do so. Of course, the big question is “how”?

First, in order to reduce your total work week, you have to find out where the time is going. Using a combination of my Time Audit Spreadsheet and the Personal Task Manager (PTM) application, I realized that much of my time was going towards tasks that could easily be eliminated, trimmed, or outsourced. I resolved that I would at that point force myself to focus on my “day job” from 9AM to 1PM only, freeing up the rest of the time for my new muse and new-business tasks.

You can download the old Time Audit Spreadsheet here, and below is a screen shot of the PTM tool in action.

Now, the PTM tool has its pluses and minuses. In particular, the tool provides a good summary overview of how you are spending your day, but it really is not an effective time management tool by itself. In fact, outside of doing a one-time (or periodic) time audit, I don’t think it is an effective tool at all in managing your time. However, that said, here’s some tips on getting the most value out of it:

• Set up a Hierarchy of Time Categories: The tool simply asks “What are you doing now?”. You can input anything you want at that point, but I found coming up with a good hierarchy of tasks that were lumped by category provided the most meaningful data. For example, high level categories like “Personal”, “Day Job”, “Muse”, “Extra-Curricular Activities”, etc was good for the top-level with a increasing level of detail for lower levels.
• Reporting at the Summary Level: PTM is good for summarizing how you are spending your time based on the categories you set up, but it can’t tell you how much one project or activity from one category compares against another in the same category. As such, it really is only good for summary-level detail. You’d have to set up a category for each project you are working on if you want to track at that level. At which point, I think it’s too much work for the returns
• Time Budgeting: This is the area where I felt PTM sorely lacked. For a Time Auditing tool aimed at helping you figure out where the time is going, PTM is adequate. But for a Time Management tool, you really want something that will help you set up a time “budget” and then manage against it. That’s where I turned to something more basic… a simply to-do spreadsheet and a kitchen timer.

Simple Planning: The Covey Quadrant Task List

Once I figured out where the time was going, I could craft a more pointed Time Budget / Daily Task list that would get me closer to the 4HWW and maybe GTD ideals. Based on Covey’s Quadrants, I came up with the following, more optimized Time Tracking Spreadsheet:

As you can see, there are 4 quadrants in the Time Planning Spreadsheet. The Top Left is the “Stress Quadrant”, so the key is to clear these tasks off first and quickly. Put all your unavoidable “frogs” here and then quickly clear through them by setting a time constraint on each task. I put the number of minutes for each task.

The quadrant to the right of that, in green, is the “Value Quadrant”. These are the things that deserve time and are the things you’re freeing up your time to spend on. Some of these may be work tasks, but hopefully (as in my case), the work tasks go to the Stress Quadrant, and as I execute on them quickly, I can focus on Value Quadrant tasks.

The Bottom Left quadrant is the “Deception Quadrant”. Somehow these ended up on my To-Do list, and I have to get them off as quickly as possible. If it’s worth delegating it to someone else, do it. Otherwise, just dump it. (Both fall under the category of “elimination”.) If it can’t be delegated and it can’t be dumped, find a way to automate it. In any case, outsourcing these tasks are NOT a good idea because they should probably not be done by anyone at all. If outsourcing equals the cost and complexity of automation, great, then do it. But don’t outsource something that shouldn’t be done at all. Sound familiar? Tim Ferriss says the same in his book.

The Bottom Right quadrant is the “Regret Quadrant”, or I should put the “Instant Death Quadrant”. A task should never end up here because it simply should not be done. Period. So, this area is greyed out. If someone asks you to do something or somehow you get foisted a task that is neither important nor critical, just say no. Period. No.

Putting it into practice

So, how does ths work? Well, I start with the tasks in the Stress Quadrant. Eat those frogs, get them done. To do that, I start each task by setting a kitchen timer on my desk with the number of minutes I have given myself for that task. That’s it. As the clock ticks (oh, and I can hear it ticking!) I run through the task and get it done before the bell rings (or the buzzer sounds). If it sounds, and I’m not done, I lost. Time to tweak. If I get the task done before the bell rings, I win! Take a quick break, and then onto the next task. Get all the tasks done by 1PM or earlier and then focus on the Value Quadrant tasks.

Here’s the timer that I use, if you’re curious. I got it off Amazon:

So, that’s all there is to it. I can’t say this is trivial or simple. But if you follow the steps of Audit. Time Management. Trim / Automate / Eliminate / Outsource. Repeat. I think you will find yourself getting closer to eliminating a significant part of your work day.

Now, to use the other techniques in 4HWW to get even closer to the 4 Hour a Week goal… and build up my personal revenue in the process.

Download Time Tracking Spreadsheet Here

Inspired by both the principles of time management and The 4-Hour Workweek, I had developed the Life Management Matrix. This matrix classifies the activities we perform into four categories which I will summarize here:

1. The Quadrant of Transformation: Essential and unforgettable activities that have to get done and will make an immensely positive impact on your life.
2. The Quadrant of Automation: Essential but forgettable activities that need to get done, but will not really have an impact on your life. These are things like changing the oil in your car or renewing your driver’s license.
3. The Quadrant of Fun: Unessential but unforgettable activities that don’t need to get done, but which may provide a great deal of fun or lasting memories.
4. The Quadrant of Elimination: Unessential and forgettable activities for which no one is depending on you, and that do not impact your health or happiness.

As I have noted before in a post on rethinking time management, this looks a lot like the Time Management Matrix in Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. An entertaining description of Covey’s time management matrix can be found in this sketchcast on Using The Eisenhower Matrix.

So you could think of the Life Management Matrix as a recast of Covey’s time management matrix, done in a way to facilitate the application of the principles set forth in The 4-Hour Workweek. Be recasting, we can identify opportunities for eliminating and automating activities – necessary ingredients on a quest towards becoming on of the so-called Newly Rich. Instead of importance and urgency, we classify based on what is important outwardly to ourselves and others (essential) and what is truly important inwardly to ourselves (unforgettable). I just think the concept of importance needs to be expanded into these two dimensions to help us totally capture the holistic nature of what it means for something to be important. At the same time, while I think the concept of urgency is real, to me it just means where something essential will fall on the calendar.

All of this leads some major conclusions:

• Unessential activities do not really need to be scheduled and therefore can be eliminated from any time management system.
• Essential activities that have little inward importance (i.e. they are forgettable) should be looked at as opportunities for automation, outsourcing, process improvement, etc.
• Ideally, you can spend most of your time on what is important to you outwardly and inwardly, whether urgent or not.

One could therefore go through all the things they do, and classify these activities according to this scheme, allowing things that can be eliminated, ignored and automated to show themselves. However, while the model is somewhat static, what is important to us is not. Importance is a dynamic quality. What is important to us inwardly and outwardly changes over time. Let’s consider a couple of examples:

Example 1: Laundry. I would usually place this activity in the unessential and forgettable quadrant for rather obvious reasons. It is pretty unimportant. However, what if we are wearing our last items of clean clothes? Laundry becomes important! I think you would agree that laundry becomes essential, but remains forgettable. So at times laundry can be eliminated, but sometimes is cannot and becomes a category for automation. Solution: get a laundry service and schedule it when you are down to your last items of clean clothes!

Example 2: A Serious Hobby. At one time I played music semi-professionally. I loved playing in a band. Playing and performing music was definitely essential (I earned a living from it) and also unforgettable (I loved it!). Over the years, I gave up playing in a band and started working in the software industry. I got married and had children. I still love to play music, but it is hardly essential anymore. When I teach my kids how to play something or just sing some songs with them it is a truly unforgettable experience. So in time, music has moved from the quadrant of transformation to the quadrant of fun.

I hope these examples show how important it is to realize that how we classify activities (in really any time management system) can, and usually do, evolve over time. This fundamental component of life and time management is dynamic. Practically speaking, it probably means you should audit how you spend your time on a regular basis, for example, perhaps this is something you might do once a year. Remember: Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine. (Robert C. Gallagher)

I’ll let you in on my little bit of printer-wisdom. Here’s the “fortunes” I currently have attached to my printer:

• “The best way to achieve contentment is to think of others before yourself” - A nice little admonishment to not be selfish, perhaps?
• “You will be traveling and coming into a fortune” — Wishful thinking? But more importantly, why are the concepts of fortune and traveling linked? Does the fortune come from traveling or vice-versa? Or perhaps travel is an indication of fortune? According to Tim, he seems to imply that the freedom to travel is itself a form of wealth. Hmmm.
• “Begin… the rest is easy” — Basically, get off your butt and do the thing you are thinking about!
• “You need to work hard to be ‘lucky’” — I guess there’s no such thing as luck. How does this relate to Fortune #2 above? I guess I’ll be traveling and coming into a fortune only through hard work, eh?
• “There are no strangers here… only friends you haven’t met!” — Either this is advising me to join a swingers club or pointing out that every contact could lead to the next big opportunity. Don’t burn bridges, maybe?
• “Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.” — Another piece of Zen wisdom. Be happy with what you have, not what you want.
• “You will always get what you want through your charm and personality.” – Why, thank you. But I don’t think the intent is to compliment the reader, but rather to suggest that you can get more with a carrot than a stick. My advice: ignore the word “your” in the fortune.
• “You display the wonderful traits of charm and courtesy” — More reinforcement of the above. In this case, the word “should” is missing between “You” and “display”.
• “Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.” — What would Tim think about this? I guess be true to yourself first, and then spend your time on the things that are true?
• “The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days.” — This fortune is getting all Biblical-speak on me, but the gist is “don’t worry… be happy, and you’ve live long and prosper”. Am I mixing metaphors here? Or another way to look at this is: if you do things that do not produce joy or cause stress, you will shorten your life.
• “People learn little from success, but much from failure” — Another little bit of oft-repeated wisdom. Think big. Start small. Succeed often (which means fail often in a way that brings you closer to success).
• “Great acts of kindness will befall you in the coming months.” — This is an interesting one. I don’t think it’s saying that kindness will drop out of nowhere, but I read it to suggest that I should be keeping an eye out for unexpected kindness and recognize it as a gift. Or perhaps it’s a karmic thing where to get kindness, one has to give it? Either way, I thought this was important enough to be printer-worthy.
• “What you forgive today, will be your compensation tomorrow” — I think this builds upon the previous fortune. If great acts of kindness are to befall me in the future, they will surely be compensation for kindness and forgiveness given today.
• “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” — Part of the same theme as Fortune #3… the hardest part is just starting. There’s no guarantee of success in life, but without risk, there cannot be reward. So just do it. Maybe I’ll trademark that. Oh, it already has been trademarked? Darn.
• “There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge” — There are two ways to read this. One can read it straight-forward as the only limitations are the ones we place in front of ourselves. Life is challenging enough that you don’t have to make it tougher by putting up unnecessary barriers of doubt and self-defeat. The other way of reading this is that ignorance is bliss. If you don’t know that there are challenges that everyone else knows about, then you’ll never be aware of how hard it is… and maybe even succeed as a result. I’ve heard this many times before in entrepreneurial circles that some have entered a market or industry they knew nothing about and succeeded where everyone else failed because they simply didn’t have any preconceived notions about how “tough it was”.
• “You and your wife will be happy together” — A necessary fortune for any married couple Maybe like Fortune #2 simply wishful thinking, but hey, it’s in writing, so it must be true!
• “You have a reputation for being straightforward and honest” — Just like the earlier fortunes that relate to charm, courtesy, forgiveness, and kindness, I don’t think this is making an ego-centric statement about me, but rather an admonishment. I’d insert again the word “should” between “You” and “have”. If you run your life being straight-forward and honest, provide common courtesy and charm, and forgive unconditionally, then the karma of luck and opportunity will follow.
• “You look happy and proud” — This is another interesting one. Rather than take it at face value, I’m reading this to say that you should have the appearance of happiness and pride in one’s work. Why be a perpetual sour-puss? Why not have pride in your hard work? Of course, being happy without any real cause might make folks wonder if you’re medicated. And being too proud where there’s no cause makes you look haughty and arrogant. I guess it’s being happy about life and exuding confidence in your day-to-day life while feeling content about the results gleaned from hard work.
• “Be patient! The Great Wall didn’t get built in one day” — The Chinese equivalent of “Rome wasn’t built in one day”. Building on the earlier fortune of learning more from failure, this basically states that you should persevere through failure as long as the goal is true. In fact, failure can help you get closer to success as long as the goal is worthwhile. Stick with it!
• “The current year will bring you much happiness” — Happiness seems to be the goal of these fortunes. Tim would say that the goal is not happiness, but rather lack of boredom. I think this fortune is saying that happiness is not a far-away goal, but rather it is possible right here and now. The key is to find those elements keeping you away from happiness.
• “It is never a shame to learn from others” — The final fortune on my printer goes to show that you can not only learn from failure, but learn from other people’s failures. There is no better master than experience. Rather than see it as shameful to ask for help or advice, one should see it as a quicker way to success. While learning from your own failures is good and gives you first-hand knowledge and experience, why beat your head on walls that others have beat theirs on?

So, there you have it – the wall of wisdom enshrined on my printer. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean that I have mastered the ideas and concepts of those fortunes. On the contrary, I put them there to remind me of the things that I need to improve on and keep in mind. So much wisdom from a cheap cookie!

• You must create and look for opportunities: Opportunities rarely ever come knocking on the door of someone who’s not seeking them. You have to create and seek opportunities for yourself. You have to take the initiative to get the ball rolling and the doors opening.
• Negativity will only bring more of it: When you focus only on negativity, obviously that’s all you will see. You will not seek out positivity, and even when positivity comes into your life, you’ll look for the negative part of it.
• Where you are does not determine where you can go: It doesn’t matter if you’re homeless or living in a mansion, poor or rich, or if you have a 4.0 grade point average or “failing”, it won’t make any difference in the future. There are countless rags to riches stories to back this point up. If you have the drive and talents, you can go anywhere. You create your own limitations and horizon.

Check it out!

I think the timing of reading the book meshes quite well with the beginning of the year. Maybe it’s not coincidental — picking up the book in the first place was motivated by having more time on my hands due to the holiday season (more time to read) as well as being a very retrospective time of the year. (What can I work on / improve / eliminate in the year ahead?)  Regardless, I am really looking forward to making serious progress on my goals, and I have to say, reading the blogs of other 4HHW bloggers really is helping.

4HWW Resolutions for the Business

First, I have to continue working in my existing business, which is right now generating 90% of my income (the other 10% coming from investments and interest). But the goal will be to reduce the time requirement for that down to 20-30 hours per week from the 40-60 now. The primary way I plan to do that is by strategically outsourcing certain parts of the business.

One of the big parts that is consuming lots of my time is marketing some of our events and attracting attendees to a number of our upcoming events. This is something that is urgent and important (Quadrant I Covey), but not something that requires such an expensive resource as me to perform. I think this would be ideal for off-shore, outsourced resources (perhaps located close to the regions to be contacted). I’ll have to start my search on eLance.

Once that’s outsourced, the next activity is around delivery of some of the services and training, which I think can also be done through partners and other resources, leaving me to do sales and business development, my forte. But the big goal is to get the company sold in 2008. This will leave me to pursue the other businesses, which I think will be more aligned with my ongoing entrepreneurial drive, desire to enter the product business, and achieve the time (life/work) balance I seek.

More importantly, I want to start my other businesses in 2008. There are two businesses I am most interested in running. One is a Web 2.0 company that, if it actually manages to work and get traction, I could build into something with real value and potentially sell to one of the majors. The other has absolutely nothing to do with the IT industry and can potentially also prove to be very lucrative.

Oh, and I have an idea for a simple product (a fad, really) that I’d like to test market and develop a prototype. But I’ve never developed anything like it, so I need to gather some experience in doing that sort of product.

Is this too much to all be done in one year? Let’s find out.

4HWW Resolutions for this Blog

First, I want to learn from other 4HWW bloggers and hope that the community can continue to motivate me to my goals and increasing efficiency. In particular, I’m following the blogs of the Four Hour Trial (which looks very interesting – I think I might even ask for some advice!) and the Four Hour Work Week Journal, which seems to be just starting.

I will then endeavor to post what I learn about time savings, outsourcing, product development, marketing, and work/life balance. Hopefully this will encourage all to do the same.

And while this might be a long shot, I’d like to earn at least $5k in first-year revenues from the blog. This would be around $400-$500 a month in revenues, which would be from my primary revenue sources:

• Google Ads (click on the links if you are interested in what they offer!)
• Amazon.com Affiliate sales (buy they books if you want to help me out)
• Cafepress Items (buy my items if you like the designs)
• Adbrite (not quite yet set up)
• Pay-to-Blog (I’ll try that soon, and let you know how that goes!)

If each of these contributes $100 or so a month, I’ll get there.
4HWW Resolutions for MADFUN

• Restart my music hobby. I want to learn how to play guitar and mandolin (maybe banjo) as well as other instruments. I’ll see if I can get the weekly music lessons going and see how far I can get.
• Enter an MBA program. This is the big “muse”. While not a revenue-earning muse as referred to in 4HWW, it is a good investment in myself. I found a good weekend MBA program that might be suited for my particular profile as an entrpreneur. It will take 2 years, but if I can prove I can run 4 businesses, complete an MBA, have MADFUN, and still have a life, I think this 4HWW concept will be well proven.
• Continue my dance hobby. I love to dance. I’ll see if I can squeeze it in at least 2 nights a week
• Cook more at home, take cooking lessons. Home cooking is not only more economical, but also healthier than the alternatives. I love to cook, so I will make it a goal to cook as frequently on my own or find a means to outsource the parts that are time consuming (groceries?) and see if that helps to optimize the schedule.
• Leave weekends as free as possible. The end goal of the successful four-hour-a-weeker.
• Expand my contacts and personal / business network. This is all a stepping stone to the next big thing. If I can succeed on the above, I will then take my efforts one notch further.

Resolutions for Me

So, what does this all mean? I’m being quite ambitious, and some of the above may have to fall by the wayside. After all, the idea is more revenue, less time, more enjoyment, less stress (eustress, not distress, remember?). But can that be done? I’m still less than 30 days into this experiment. But 2008 is when it all kicks in.

Of course, the first answer is: “Start other businesses”. The idea is to become a parallel entrepreneur. That can only happen with effective time management.

But there’s more to it than that. If it was work, work, work, even with good time management, life is just no fun. The idea is to lessen work so as to focus on living.

So, what do I want to do other than just expand the revenue opportunities? Have MADFUN. That’s what. What do I mean by that? Here you go:

Music – I am a musician and want to do more of it. If I’m not working, I should be playing, composing, and sharing more music.

Academics – I plan to enroll in a Weekend or Executive MBA program. With my extra time, I should be able to get more education, degrees, and opportunities! There’s no better investment than education.

Dance – I love to dance. It’s great exercise. It’s great social activity. It’s great stress relief. It’s great fun. Why not? So, with the free time, I should be Dancing.

Food – I love to cook. I need to find time to enroll in cooking classes, expand my cooking talents, and cook more.

Uninterrupted Family Time – When not having personal fun, have family fun, and make sure that every day has some Family time.

Networking – If I still have free time and not devoting it to work or any of the above true muses, I should be networking to increase my connections, knowledge, and opportunities. Networking increases opportunities.

So, there you have it. Increase available time, and allocate it to new businesses. When not doing new businesses, have MADFUN. In that way, maintain a proper work-life balance and spend more time with the family as well!