The 4-Hour Workweek /

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (2007) is a semi-autobiographical self-help book promoted by Stewart Friedman written by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur. In the book's dedication, Ferriss announced that he would be donating "10% of all author royalties" to educational charities such as Donorschoose.org. In the book Ferriss uses the acronym DEAL for the four main chapters. It stands for: Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation. Definition means to figure out what a person wants, get over fears, see past society's "expectations," and figure out what it will really cost to get where a person wants to go. Elimination is about time management, or rather about not managing time. This is achieved applying the 80/20 rule to focus only on those tasks that contribute the majority of benefit, and using Parkinson's Law to limit the amount of actual time spent working. There's a difference, Ferriss says, between efficiency and effectiveness. The book's emphasis is on effectiveness. Automation is about building a sustainable, automatic source of income.