… common and UNcommon viewpoints about money

I just got back from a short vacation on Tioman Island. For foreigners visiting Malaysia, there are several tropical islands you can visit that is a bit like heaven on earth. Us locals prefer to stay out of the heat and blazing sun. My vacation was way too short due to tide timing issues and the fact that we had another event, a wedding we had to attend. I can say I don’t “have to do” anything I don’t want to but my dad promised relatives he’ll be there and the vacation was scheduled later. If it were just me and my other half, we’d probably get a later boat and give the wedding a miss. So, we ended up at the nice resort for a total of 24 hours while we spent 21 hours travelling.

While the plan was to have at least a day and a half on the island, and that plan we messed up, I made the best of the time available. Which is how life is, right? Not everything will go according to plan. If they don’t go according to plan, great. We meant getting to bed a bit later and getting up earlier to enjoy the beach and pool. So even with the limited time, I still had a great time.

What surprised me though were [Read more →]

Recently, I picked up Timothy Ferriss’s book “The 4 Hour WorkWeek”. I’m sure you would have heard about this book. It is one of the best sellers around. If you have not, you will get some hint from its tagline, which say, “escaping the 9 to 5 and be a new rich.”

While the book is great in many areas, there are some areas you need to be careful about. I almost got sucked in.

I’ve written about using your time effectively and about whether you should do something just because everyone is doing it. So back to the book, the great thing about the 4HWW is there are some tips everyone can use to be more effective.

Tips that are worth reminders as we start 2010 include:-

• the 80 20 principle which is more that proven, that says “80% of any outcome comes from 20% of the effect” or also know as the Pareto principle
• Parkinson’s law (no not Parkinson’s disease) which says any task expends to fill the time allocated to complete it (this is a great one)
• to how to reduce time interruptions from co worker
• getting on a low info diet

plus many more. One of my favorite is the tip on avoiding or reducing meetings. That alone would be worth the price of the book. I’ve applied some of what I read to my own life albeit not zapping bad habits like multitasking and I would say it helps. I would certainly recommend you get a copy of this book.

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