minimalist work day

8/9/2019 Minimalist Work Day

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IntroductIon toMInIMALISt workdAy

Over the last year Ive accomplished a couple o things:

1. Quit my day job, became location independent.

2. Start living with less than 100 things.

3. Built a protable business around a blog.

4. Written two best-selling e-books which completely support me.

Throughout this time, I managed to keep my work schedule down to less than

2 hours per day, on avarage. Yes, some weeks I worked 10 hour days, and oth-

ers I simply didnt work at all. In the end though, I dont actually work that

much anymore. My goal is to help you do the same.

This e-book took me 4 hours to write and edit, and 2 hours to produce.

Maybe Im super human, but I dont think so. We waste a lot o time, and thats

why we work so much.

Over the last year Ive received hundreds o emails rom readers asking how to

reduce their work schedule. Ive written a number o blog posts on the topic,

and both o my e-books weigh into the issue. Ive been interviewed about the

minimalist workday by major newspapers and blogs.

All o this has made me conclude that we want to work less, so Ive put this e-

book together to help us do just that.


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AverAge AMerIcAnS

The average American works 7.9 hours a day, thats just under 2,000 hours a year.

Id like to argue that much o that time is wasted, sitting at a desk, doing stupid

work that doesnt matter.

Also, two weeks o vacation a year is a crime, and you know it.

I think this is one o the most important issues o our time. The world changed,

and how we use our time is much more important than how long we sit at a desk.

Its time or a revolution in the way we think o work. I hope you agree with me.


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why thIS e-book ISfree

I have published two other e-books in the last year, both o them I

charged money or. I honestly dont need much more money at this point,

so making you pay to learn how to work less seems like extortion to me.

Youre already being held hostage by a corporate system, being orced towork endless hours or low pay. To charge you money to learn how to opt-

out would be like sticking a hot poker in an open wound. I wont do that.

So Im giving this away or ree. I it helps you, consider buying one o my

other e-books. Id also love i you sent this e-book to as many people as

you think can benet rom it. Thank you.

My e-books are here, i you eel like checking them out ater reading:

Minimalist Business

The Art of Being Minimalist
http://minimalistbusiness.com/minimalist-business.phphttp://minimalistbusiness.com/art-of-being-minimalist.phphttp://minimalistbusiness.com/art-of-being-minimalist.phphttp://minimalistbusiness.com/minimalist-business.php


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hunterS And gAthererS

Weve been told since day one that we were supposed to sit at a desk or 8 hours a day, but

theres always been another way.

There are ways to master the art o time, and the best way to do that is to become a hunter.

A hunter spots opportunities and greets them... this, above all else is the winning strategy

or working less.

We all used to be hunters, so believe it or not it will come naturally to you once you try. Its

hard to tell rom where youre sitting at your desk right now though. You have to stand up

beore you can start hunting.

Coincidently enough, hunter gatherer societies had 2-hour workdays. The Internet has al-

lowed us to start hunting again. You can either do repetative tasks, or seek big paydays. Its

your choice.

Once you start to spot opportunities outside o everyone elses assumed reality, youll begin

to notice them everywhere.

But as I mentioned beore, you have to stand up to start seeing.


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why work 2 hourS AdAy?

It might seem obvious, but there are numerous benets to be accrued by work-

ing less.

Were so used to spending most o our lives at our jobs that i t might not evenseem possible to work less. Believe me, it is.

Inevitably someone will send me an email about this e-book calling me lazy.

Believe me, Im ar rom it. Why waste an extra six hours when you can get your

work done in two?

Working less isnt lazy, in act Id like to argue that working MORE is lazy.

Why? Because i you work or eight hours just out o habit, you arent making

tough choices in order to maximize your business and get things done.


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the benefItS of2-hour workdAyS:

Less stress.

More time to relax and enjoy your life.

More time for learning, research, reading which can maximize prots.

Youll make your friends jealous, because youre at the park while theyre

sitting under uorescent lights.

When you work less you also spend less, because you dont need to waste

money blowing o steam.

The biggest benet is o course that youll get paid more per hour. I you make

$10 an hour in an average 8-hour day, when you reduce your schedule to 2 hour

days, your rate will jump to $40 an hour. That number can grow exponentially as

you make more money rom your business.


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the StrAtegIeS for

work ScheduLe re-ductIon

Over the last year, Ive experimented with hundreds o dierent strategies in

order to minimalize my workdays.

Some strategies, like avoiding the time-suck o endless email checking, have

revolutionized my business. Others didnt work out so hot, these I wont write

about here, because they wont help you.

Beore I get into what not to do, let me go over three things that you must do in

order to keep your business going strong while youre not working.

1. Provide value.

No business exists without providing a valuable resource or people to invest

money in. You need to oer something that gives people value, quality, and

useulness. Obviously this is denition incredibly nonspecic, because every

business is dierent. A valuable photographer produces quality photos o people

and places. A valuable writer leads people with clear writing that conveys inor-

mation. A valuable accountant makes sure the taxes get done and no one gets

audited.


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2. Productize.

Most businesses depend on services which are transacted in real time. This

is NOT the kind o business I advocate building inMinimalist Business.

Instead, create a product that will ll the needs o a number o people. A

product must have a specic ocus, and yet be generic enough that it can

help a small number o people who really need it. Make the product digital,

because physical media costs money and will undermine your ability to prot

and thus have a ree lie.

3. Automate.

Finally, it cant be necessary or you to be physically available all the time i

youre going to be working two hours a day. So, you need to automate your

business. Use automatic distribution systems to bring your product to the

people who need it. E-junkie is good or that, but there are o course other

ways. Receive money automatically into your paypal account, this way you

wont need to receive a phone call, or answer an email in order to bring your

work to the world.

The alternative to this is physically sending out boxes with your product in it

to anyone who orders. You dont want to be in that kind o situation, because

it doesnt scale. Go digital and youll automatically have a protable business

that only takes a moment to automate.
http://www.e-junkie.com/http://www.e-junkie.com/


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why you need thoSethree eLeMentS

I you dont do these three things, your minimalist business will STOP the

moment you take your hands o the reigns. Its important to keep those

three absolutes in mind, and not to let them suer while youre eliminating

stu that doesnt matter.

For example, i you stop providing value to customers, or have no way to

automate the distribution o that value, you will ail the moment you stop

checking email 45 times a day or putting boxes in the mail.

Now that Ive gone over what not to stop doing, its time to ocus on what you

can eliminate to eventually reduce your work schedule to less than 2 hours

per day.

This process wont be easy, but it is rewarding.

When you have more ree time youll be able to dedicate it to health and

reading/reading like I have in order to contribute massive value to the lives o

others and thus your own business.

I realize some o these strategies will be redundant rom blog posts that Ive

written. My aim here is to combine all o these resources into one extensive

list.

For a more comprehensive view o how to actually start a minimalist busi-

ness, check out the Minimalist Business Bookstore.


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50 eSSentIAL StrAt-egIeS for 2-hour

workdAyS

1. Time-cap tasks to less.

I you give yoursel 8 hours to complete one task, it will inevitably take

you 8 hours to achieve it. Stop messing around, you know that you can

do better. Give yoursel 15 minutes to create something, and you will do

it in 15 minutes. You cant have a 2-hour workday i you take all day to do

whats important to your business.

2. Focus on the important.

I you only have two hours to work, youll need to do important things

during that two hours. In order to do important things, you have to

know what is important. Through tests and analysis identiy the key

components o your business, and only ocus on these things. For in-stance, the only important element o my business is creating valuable

content. I I only have two hours to work, this is all that I do.


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3. Stop checking email (I shouldnt need to ask you again.)

Ive drilled this one into the ground, stop checking email. Heres

how to check your email once per day.

4. Eliminate meetings.

In the past, the only way to get other peoples opinions was to sit

them all down in a room and ask. Now we have this marvelous

thing called the Internet. Just make stu, people will weigh in i i tsgood or bad. You dont need to sit in a room with a bunch o ran-

dom people to decide i something is important.

5. Dont read blogs.

There are a lot o blogs out there, most o them arent worth read-

ing. I only have a couple o blogs that I really enjoy, I unsubscribe

rom the rest. Dont spend most o your workday reading other

people, its just inormation. Inormation doesnt do any goodwithout action. Stop reading, start doing. I my blog bores you, I

encourage you to unsubscribe as well. Id rather you do work than

read more inormation.
http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/how-to-reduce-your-email-checking-to-once-a-day/http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/how-to-reduce-your-email-checking-to-once-a-day/http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/how-to-reduce-your-email-checking-to-once-a-day/http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/how-to-reduce-your-email-checking-to-once-a-day/


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6. Dont read newspapers.

Newspapers will make you very aware o all o the things you cant have

an eect on in the world. You cant change the act that a bomb just blew

up in Iraq. You cant change the act that theres oil spewing out into

the Gul. So why are you reading the newspapers? Because they make

you eel like youre involved, even when youre not. Add to the act that

newspaper writing is getting more and more horrendous as costs are cut

and writers ee to the ree distribution o the Internet -- theres basically

no reason to waste your time.

7. Destroy your TV.

Ditto. My riend Tyler Tervooren likes to say that you ll save 8.2 years o

your lie and $133,369 i you stop watching TV. Destroy it, and you ll

have 35 hours a week more to dedicate to your business (even i you only

need 10 o those hours.)

8. Obtain inormation rom qualied sources.

When you nd that you need additional inormation in order to get your

work done, its absolutely essential that you get it rom qualied sources.

Who are qualied sources? People who have actually done what you

want to do. Dont ask people who havent done something how to do it,

theyre liable to give you bad inormation. I you want to live anywhere

in the world, ask someone who has (not your riends working in retail.)
http://tylertervooren.com/advancedriskology/how-to-add-8-years-and-133369-to-your-life/http://tylertervooren.com/advancedriskology/how-to-add-8-years-and-133369-to-your-life/http://tylertervooren.com/advancedriskology/how-to-add-8-years-and-133369-to-your-life/http://tylertervooren.com/advancedriskology/how-to-add-8-years-and-133369-to-your-life/


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9. Test your assumptions about reality.

We assume a lot o things in order to make our lives unction. This is

good, because we dont want to go about re-learning the English language

every time we meet a new person. However, some assumptions can be

proven to be alse over time. Almost everyone over 30 thinks you need a

publisher to bring your message to the world, while everyone under 20

doesnt even know what a publisher is -- they are the publisher. Test your

assumptions, because chances are you might be wrong. A lot o the big

payouts in the modern age come rom challenging untested assumptions.

10. Create scarcity or your services.

I you charge $9.95 an hour or your services, chances are that youll

never have enough clients. Youre an expert now, i you want to make a

living you need to charge expert wages. How many clients do you need i

you charged $500 an hour, or instance? Obviously thats not a rate that

everyone can charge, but you cant get a rate like that i you dont ask.Create scarcity by only taking clients who can pay -- let the rest get ree

inormation rom your website, or buy your products.


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11. Fire bad/needy clients.

I you dont like working with someone, or i theyre more demand-

ing than their rate allows. Fire them. This also includes UNPAY-

ING clients, such as blog commenters or people who email you

asking dumb questions. This will ree up more time or you to nd

new clients that dont cause you tons o trouble. Not all clients are

created equal, sometimes in order to work less than 2 hours a day

you need to nd the ones who are willing to do their own legwork,and not cause you tons o trouble.

12. Say who you are and what you actually do.

Heres a good way to save yoursel a lot o trouble: be specic about

who you are on the Internet and what you actually do. So many

people are wishy-washy. Im a social media consultant, designer,

photographer, copy-editor, nose-picking, pot smoking, shoe shiner.

You cant be all o those roles at once, pick one and everyone will

have a much clearer picture o why they should care about the work

that youre doing. BONUS: put a picture o yoursel on everything

you do on the net, it really helps.


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13. Start a blog.

One of the best decision you can make is to start blogging. Look at bloggingthis way: whenever you answer a question that someone has about your

business you can do 1 o 2 things. 1. You could answer it on a private orum

such as email and help one person, OR: 2. You could answer it on a public

orum and help a whole lot o people. When you think about blogging like

that, it will make it possible to work less than two hours per day.

14. Focus on less communication channels.

Communication is useul, but not a good way to work. You could spend all

day talking to people and never get anything done, so dont. Focus less on

the communications channels like email, Twitter, the phone. Focus more on

getting work done. I recently deleted my LinkedIn account because it wasnt

a communication channel that I ound beneted my business to be engag-

ing in. I you check less communications channels, you have more time or

creating work.

15. Batch small repetitive tasks.

When you nd yoursel doing a lot o small little tweaks, just put them on a

list to batch at some point in the uture. I you stop doing important work to

do a little tweak, it will take a long time to get back on track. Its absolutely

essential to batch-task small repetitive tasks. Or...


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16. Eliminate unnecessary tasks.

Just stop doing unnecessary things. They arent necessary, so you

dont need to do them. Try an experiment, just dont do something

that you think might not need to be done. Either the world will all

apart (probably not.) or it wont (more likely.) I the world doesnt

all apart, you probably dont need to do the unnecessary task.

17. Stop doing stu you hate doing.

Also, i you hate doing it, dont do it! Why make yoursel do

something you hate just because you think you should do it? Life is

short, dont waste it on doing stu that you hate.

18. Cap time on social media.

Social media is an endless vortex. Give yoursel 15 minutes a day to

check Facebook and do some Tweeting. Get o other social net-

works i you arent nding any results there. Good, now you have a

lot more time to put your energy into things that matter.


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19. Dont accept phone calls.

Heres another big time-sucker o yesteryear. Business doesnt need to bedone over the phone anymore. Reserve actual audio or a select ew inu-

ential people, and instead give people simple and precise methods to get in

touch with you, such as Twitter. This way you dont end up on the phone

or extended periods o time with no real objective.

20. Establish an all-star inner circle.

One o the most important methods to elevate yoursel above the crowd

is to establish an all-star inner circle. Ive made a point o aligning mysel

with a crowd o extraordinary individuals in order to ampliy how my mes-

sage gets to the world. You can do this too, and it can take an good deal o

time out o your work schedule. For a ull list o my inner circle, see who

I ollow on Twitter. Dont know who is inuential? Twitter ollow count

ratios (bigger the ollow:ollowed ratio the better) are a good measure.

21. Reduce communications with unimportant people.

Lets face it, you know that some people arent as important as other

people. There are bystanders, malcontents, lazy people, and just plain un-

inuentials. Avoid these people, they will bring you down into the monoto-

ny o endless communication, arguing about the status quo, and inevitable

mediocrity. I youre an inuential, nd a way to change that because its

hard to succeed i no one cares.
https://twitter.com/evbogue/followinghttps://twitter.com/evbogue/followinghttps://twitter.com/evbogue/followinghttps://twitter.com/evbogue/following


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22. Dont go to networking events.

Networking events are useul, but only i they are small and youre sur-

rounded by people who you know and want to meet in person. Oth-

erwise, avoid them. Theyre lled with people looking or work, and

people looking or work dont have money to spend on your products

(or hire you orgodsake!) I there is an open bar, you can ignore my

advice, and just go enjoy yoursel.

23. Burn the stack o business cards i you do.

I have gone to a couple o networking events lately, and I always ended

up with a stack o business cards rom people who just really want me

to check out their hal-baked website. For the rst ew people, I was

nice enough to send them an email with my e-book attached. However,

most o these people didnt even email back. How useul is that? Twit-

ter is so much better or networking than networking events will ever

be -- because you can target who you meet, and not just talk to random

strangers who still think the publishing industry exists.

24. Go paperless.

Paper isnt searchable, it costs money to print things on it. Youll

streamline your business, eliminate clutter, and also move into the

uture i you stop using paper or your business.


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25. Automate, automate, automate.

Everything except creation needs to happen automatically. I mentioned

some ways to automate above, but I cant say enough how powerul it isto not have to be present or a transaction. Youll start making money in

your sleep, and i your work is good enough, chances are youll be able to

take extended periods away rom your business and simply just continue

to make money. Thats a win!

26. Reduce your lie overhead.

When your lie overhead is less, you need to make less money. This

makes it possible or you to worry less about making tons o money,

and so working a lot isnt such an issue. Does your lie stop i you arent

making $60,000 a year? Well, then you have to worry more than I do. I

you only need to make $14,000 this year to break even, then youre go-

ing to worry less, work less, and ultimately probably make more money

anyway.

27. Reduce your business overhead.

I dont care about revenue, I care about prots. I youre making $200

a day, and spending $100 o that on something else, youre cheating

yoursel out o a lot o money you could be channeling towards your lie.

I youre making $4 a day, and spending $100 a day on your business,

well thats not a business, its the Hindenburg. I your business overhead

is zero, you have to work less. There is an entire section about how to

achieve this in my bookMinimalist Business.


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28. Identiy your most important work.

Figure out what you need to do to really bring in the big bucks. Hint: it

probably isnt Twitter or email. What you need to do is make work that mat-

ters. I you have only two hours per day to work, use it to make work and not

just be busy.

29. Drink more (but not too much) coee.

Coee makes your brain sharper, your reexes aster, etc. I typically cant

work unless Im simultaneously sipping on a large coee. Yes, thats an ad-

diction, but it works. Other people work better with a gin and tonic. Others

work better with a skim latte. Find your poison and let it help you work less.

30. Dont get caught up in communication.

One thing I see a lot o people doing is keeping all o their communication

channels open at all times. Their Skype is on, their Twitter is a tweeting,

their G-chat is open with their email. All o this serves as a distraction that

will make your work day spiral out o control. Close all o your communica-

tions channels, turn o your phone, get work done.


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31. Empower others to make decisions without you.

I you work with people, i ts so important to let them do their work. How?

Give them permission to make decisions without you. This will allow less

back and orth to happen, and ultimately will create a better business. For

instance, I dont micromanage my afliates, I simply tell them to say what

they think. Everything works best that way.

32. Over-deliver on core value.

Your business oers a key service or inormation that people need, and

you need to over-deliver on the value that you provide. You want to leave

people thinking wow, this changed my lie! Yes, thats hard to do, but it

will go a long way towards reducing your work schedule i you can man-

age it. Example: I could have just written a 500 word blog post saying you

should work less. Would that be over-delivering? No. So I wrote a 5000+

word ree e-book that basically guarantees that you work less.

33. Oer a Forever Guarantee.

In the digital world, its essential to oer people their money back i orwhatever reason they dont like or nd value rom your product. We all

know that were not scammers, or some people on the Internet its incred-

ibly hard to tell. Also, not every product is or everyone. I someone pur-

chasedMinimalist Business, but were happy in their day job, Id love to

give them back their money. Learn more about a Forever Guarantee here.
http://minimalistbusiness.com/forever-guarantee.phphttp://minimalistbusiness.com/forever-guarantee.phphttp://minimalistbusiness.com/forever-guarantee.php


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34. Pay your ans to support you.

Imagine how much business youd have i you had a team o a thou-sand+ marketing proessionals doing their best to sell your work?

Well, its possible. You just have to pay your ans to support you.

35. Dont do things you dont know how to do.

I you dont know how to do something, dont do it! Dont ocus on

your weaknesses and you ll be able to make better work. I you have

no idea how to do design, nd someone who does. I you dont know

how to take a photograph, nd someone who does. It makes no sense

to waste time making ugly stu i you know how to do other stu

better.

36. Focus on your strengths.

To counter that which you do not know what to do, ocus on what

you do! Take a moment and take stock o what your abilities are,

make sure these are the ocus o your business. Im a good writer, so

my business revolves around writing. Maybe you look good on cam-

era, that means you should be doing a video blog. It all depends on

what your strengths are, you should ocus on them in order to work

less.
http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/minimalist-business-101-how-to-pay-your-fans-to-support-you/http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/minimalist-business-101-how-to-pay-your-fans-to-support-you/


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37. Admit that nothing you do will be an absolute original.

So many people I know are sitting around scratching their heads or

that one big original idea that will skyrocket them into ame. I have

news or you: nothing is original. Were all just idea-DJs remixing

old ideas in our own way. This means that the best ideas are actually

combinations o other ideas rearranged in a way that inspires people to

change the world. So dont wait around or the one big original idea, it

aint coming.

38. So, remix the successul people.

That being said, its important not to remix bad ideas. A good judge

o whether an idea is good is whether you like the idea. I an idea that

someone else makes you jump out o your shoes and run scream-

ing bareoot in the street, then thats a good sign that you should be

strategically copying it in order to uel your own work. I you love Andy

Warhol, by all means, copy his work! Eventually youll nd a way to

make it your own. Just dont copy and paste, because thats copyright

inringement. Meld ideas good ideas through the lens that is you.


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39. Lead your people.

Show people the way, and they will ollow. Become a leader by choos-

ing to live your lie in the way you want, and give people an example

to ollow. I lead by living with less and working rom anywhere in the

world, and this proves to a lot o people that it is possible. In the words

o Seth Godin: we need you to lead us.

40. Dont be araid to lose clients.

I you work less, youre going to make some needy people unhappy.

They want you on call in the middle o the night, otherwise youre notgood enough or them. Well, with clients like that, you ll never reduce

your work schedule. Lose clients that cost you more time than theyre

worth, and youll work less.

41. Make a certain group o people angry at you.

One o the most powerul ways to work less is to live your lie in a way

that pisses some people o. True story. For example, Im constantly

telling people that owning a car is evil, because I want more people to

drive less. I dont own a car, so I can say that. Yes, it makes a lot o car

driving people incredibly angry at me, Im okay with that. I you make

everyone happy, you dont create change.


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42. Dont sell crap.

When you produce junk, you have to work harder to make it sell. I you

turn that around, and make valuable work that helps people succeed, it will

market itsel. This way you wont need to spend all day trying to convince

people to buy something that isnt worth the money.

43. Did I mention not to check your email? Well, dont do that and also

send shorter replies.

Another time-sucking problem with email is replying to all o the messages

you get. I you receive a novel-length email, youre tempted to respond with

6,000 words. Dont! Limit your response to a few sentences and it ll go

a long way towards making the endless cycle o email slow down or stop.

Also, no one said you had to reply to every email.

44. Take more time o.

Funny enough, working less can be easier when you work less. Take timeo in order to rejuvenate yoursel or when you want to work again. The

best way to work hard or two hours a day is to spend the rest o the day not

working. Sounds like a paradox right? Try it, it really isnt.


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45. Dont aim or perect.

When you try to make everything perect, you end up spending a lot o time

getting there. Perect is overcoming the nal 1%, and most people cant do

that. I could have spent orty hours going over this copy to make sure all

o the commas were exactly in the right place, that all o my ideas perectly

clear, unmuddled, and spelled completely right. Well, I know Im not perect,

so Im just going to publish as is. Its easier that way, and you spend less time

getting done.

46. Stop ater 2 hours.

Just stop. Set a timer. Whatever. Then you wont work too much.

47. Work well.

When youre working or 2 hours, you have to really bang it out. Make the

stu that matters, sweat on your work until you cant see clearly anymore.

Burn yoursel with your ideas. Just work so reakin hard that you cant nd

your hands anymore. Then stop ater 2 hours an go get a beer. That is how

you work 2 hours a day.


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whAt now?

Help someone else:

Email this to a friend.

Retweet my blog post (the original post is here.)

Share this on Facebook.

Print it out and leave it at a coee shop.

The possibilities are endless.
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minimalist work day

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