Last week I finished ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’. While the book lost some steam towards the end, it was still a very good and useful book.

In my last post I enumerated some of the changes author Tim Ferriss made to his work life that created huge changes to his personal life. In short, he now works to live rather than live to work, and he encourages you to do the same.

His mantra: Work wherever and whenever you want, but get your work done so you can free yourself up to play. It’s not so much that he wanted to be a millionaire, he wanted the millionaire lifestyle – to have a life of complete freedom.

Ferriss viewed the long-accepted “rules” in the working world – sit behind a desk until you retire at 65, taking a vacation or two a year along the way – as unacceptable.

Psychologically speaking, Ferriss was like the oppositional teen, railing against his parents’ rules. He sought his own identity (of thought, belief, language, etc.), separate from his parents. Psychologists call this phenomenon ‘separation and individuation’.

Like a teenager, he asked lots of ‘why’ questions, like ‘Why wait 40 years to travel and have fun?’ He wanted a work life that made sense to him, something that he could stamp as his own. He found it and he is far happier for it.

There’s much to be learned from the book. My hope is that, among other things, it will prompt people to take a serious look at their work-life balance.

In my psychotherapy practice in Washington, D.C., I meet with a fair share of overworked professionals who have limited time for their personal life. So, they come into my office with feelings of depression or anxiety or they tell me their partnership/marriage is falling apart.

They have neglected their personal life (family, friends, interests/hobbies) to the point that it’s nearly non-existent. Ferriss’ plea is to reclaim your personal life and the sense of freedom that comes with it.

While you don’t have to travel to exotic locales, dancing the tango and racing motorcycles as Ferriss does, you can implement some of his techniques and live a far happier life.

One of the things I’ve done during ‘Snomageddon’, ‘Snowpocalypse’, or whatever you’re calling Washington, D.C.’s latest snow storm, is read Timothy Ferriss’ excellent new book ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’.

I’m only about halfway through the book but thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you. (The book, along with watching movies with my wife and cooking, has helped me cope with what could be a crippling case of cabin fever.)

For those who haven’t heard of the book, a #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, it is essentially about how to work less, have more free time and make more money in less time. He calls it ‘The New Rich’.

For those reasons it clearly distinguishes itself from the herd. Go to Borders bookstore or Barnes and Noble and you’ll see countless books about how to either save more money or make more money.

In contrast, Ferriss emphasizes leveraging his time so that he can spend more of it away from his computer and phone. He appears to value the currency of time more so than money.

Ferriss not a slacker. Far from it. He’s a 32-year-old Princeton grad who founded BrainQUICKEN, an online company that sells sports nutrition supplements. He sold the company last year, made a fortune, and now travels the world and invests in online ventures like Twitter.

Not everyone can create a hugely successful online company and have a team of people working for him.

However, Ferriss outlines some key concepts that can apply to every unhappy 9-to5-er out there:  Work more efficiently; eliminate, or significantly decrease, time spent on activities that drain your time and energy; stop limiting your dreams.

So, to work more efficiently, Ferriss figured out the most productive times of day to make sales calls (early in the morning and after 5 pm) and those became the hours of the day he focused on. He distinguishes between being “busy” and being “productive”.

He is a big believer in a concept he calls “batching” to handle distracting but necessary “time consumers”, those repetitive tasks that interrupt more important ones. To that end, he checks his email twice a day, at 12 pm and 4 pm, and does laundry every other Sunday at 10 pm.

Lastly, Ferriss suggests that we stop capping our own happiness by choosing “realistic” goals, relegating ourselves to a life of mediocrity. In fact, he argues, since so few of us really challenge ourselves it’s far easier to achieve the seemingly impossible (getting a celebrity on the phone, for example) than not.

I look forward to finishing the book – and not seeing another $%@&*#^&# snowflake until next winter.

A big part of anxiety comes from “what if” kind of thinking. You’ve probably asked yourself some “what if” questions at some point, as in “What if I don’t do a good job on the Wilson project?” or “What if I say the wrong thing on my date?”

There are some major problems with asking yourself this question. First, it assumes that you’re going to fail in some way. Second, it takes you out of the present and into the future, where anxiety lives. 

Third, it is a question driven by fear — as opposed to love — which is often a slippery slope to asking yourself other “what if” questions, spiking our anxiety unnecessarily. When we act out of love, meaning that we like and value ourself, it’s far easier to trust our knowledge and abilities.

Steer clear of “what if” questions altogether. However, if you’ve already asked yourself one, stop yourself immediately. (Try imagining an enormous red STOP sign.)  Then consider all the things under your control, which keeps you in the present and increases the likelihood for a successful outcome.

For example, if you’re working on the Wilson project, do all the research available to you, spend time writing a strong proposal and collaborate with others. If you do everything under your power, you won’t have the time or the wherewithal to ask yourself “what if” questions.