The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Update - Timothy Ferriss [138]
*Skype—www.skype.com, Skype is a free software that allows you to talk for free via the Internet. You can also use Skype with regular phones to make calls internationally for a low rate of about .04 cents a minute. Skype also has video chatting capabilities and conference call capabilities for meetings. The setup requires downloading the Skype software free) and buying a headset with microphone ($10) and webcam ($ ranges) for each computer. I have tested this software with my sister and it works well for her in Argentina and for me here.
*iStockphoto—www.istockphoto.com, iStockphoto is an Internet royalty-free image and design stock photography website. This is one of the many sites I use to find photos for [company name]. We have already used a few photos from this site for our marketing materials.
*Seminar Photo Contest—This contest was created by me and developed with Keri as an experiment to collect more relevant and usable photos for our marketing and publication efforts. Since we have found it to be a bit invasive to try and take the photos ourselves, we wanted to try a new approach to capture photos for our needs. All participants of our Summer Seminars 2008 are able to submit photos they have taken at their seminar with a chance to be rewarded with a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate for each image we choose.
86. This video explains how and why I pack the items in the list that follows. Links for all items are also included.
87. This company filed for Chapter 11 in June 2009.
88. For the exact breakfast, just serach “slow-carb” on www.fourhourblog.com or both “slow-carb” and “Ferriss” on Google.
89. This has thankfully decreased to 2,000–3,000 per week as of this writing.
90. This post is, of course, available on the blog for those who would like to copy and paste the rules for their own use.
Living the 4-Hour Workweek
CASE STUDIES, TIPS, AND HACKS
Zen and the Art of Rock Star Living
Art Lovers Wanted
Photo Finish
Virtual Law
Taking Flight with Ornithreads
Off-the-Job Training
The 4-Hour Family and Global Education
Doctor’s Orders
Financial Musing
Who Says Kids Hold You Back?
Working Remotely
Killing Your BlackBerry
Star Wars, Anyone?
ZEN AND THE ART OF ROCK STAR LIVING
Hi Tim,
Here’s the story. I’m a musician based in Munich, Germany. I’m running my own label and it has been difficult to get it off the ground. While working on that, my creativity slowly decreased until I hit rock bottom (a couple of times).
While it is still difficult to survive in the music industry I find it not hard at all now to do what I want to do. And that’s all I do. I do what I want to do. It includes being a father, making music, composing, taking care of business, traveling, learning languages (mostly Italian), riding my bike, etc…. It’s all in the following paragraphs.
I read the book step by step for about two months from September/October 2008 (plus surfing your blog) and just made tabula rosa with my life. (Lots of brainvomiting on paper.)
I started outsourcing things that bothered me most (and therefore kept hanging out in my to-do list the longest). I outsourced:
research, most of which is music-industry related (research outsourced saves about 2–3 hours/day)
website maintenance (social websites like Facebook, Myspace, etc). I’m planning on doing most of my marketing through these sites in 2009 and I’m on about 25+ sites as an artist.
My VA (getfriday.com, as recommended in your book) does all the updates and checks the sites once a week to gather e-mail messages, comments, etc., filters them and sends me a report once a week including all the details for me to respond to. (Saves about one to two hours/day.)
photo retouching for my press pics is done by elance (saved five hours of work time and about $500).
management of my mailing list for gig dates, album updates, etc. (Saves about one hour for each mailing.)
I started testing