Concepts:

• NR: Nouveau Riche: Having a rich lifestyle without the money.
• LD: Lifestyle Design
• DEAL:
  • Definition: Challenge all your assumptions
  • Elimination: Eliminate obsolete information
  • Automation
  • Liberation: meaning geographícally

Definition

1. “D”: Deferer

• Goal: “work for retirement”
• D vs NR: very different concepts. Cf. “Apple vs Oranges” section

2. Challenge the rules

• Different can be better
• Rules to challenge/New visions:
  • Retirement is a backup plan
  • Interest and energy are cyclical
    • Alternate between periods of rest and activity
    • “mini-retirements”
  • Time working != productivity. Productive > busy
  • Timing is never right
  • Ask for forgiveness, not permission
  • Emphasize strengths. Don’t fix weaknesses
    • (note: not sure I agree)
  • Too much free time is a bad thing
  • Money alone is not the solution
  • Relative income != absolute income. Need to take into account conditions of living etc
    • Note: Cf. your money or your life
  • Distress != Eustress. Look for eustress (= good stress)
• Notes: there is a Q&A section. Can be useful to do with SO

3. Dodging bullets

• Worst case scenario: define it. What happens then?
• Fear can be disguised as “optimist denial”: “it will get better”
• Notes: the questions in this chapter are good

4. System reset

• Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic:
  • Everyone aims for realistic: more competition
  • Unrealistic: very big excitement/motivation. Pushes through
• On “what do you want?”:
  • Question too vague to answer
  • “Happiness” is vague. Too vague
  • In practice we seek excitement
• Dreamlining: budgeting for unrealistic goals.
  • Exercise: see Q&A

Elimination

5. The end of time management

• Effective vs efficient:
  • Effective: doing the right things
  • Efficient: doing things well
• Pareto/80-20
  • 80/20 customer/volume revenue: save time (example)
  • Lack of time is actually lack of priorities
• Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the allocated time
  • Set very short deadlines to force focused work
• Ask yourself often: “am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?”
  • i.e. “am I productive or just active?”

Good Q&A. Priority is key

6. The low information diet

• Selective ignorance: ignore things that are:
  • Irrelevant
  • Or unimportant
  • Or unactionable

Q&A: media diet

• Notes:
  • Reading for pleasure is fine
  • What about curiosity? Where’s the limit? Tech skills?
  • => This is only work focused
  • The art of non finishing: you don’t have to finish everything you started

7. Stopping interruptions

Type of interruptions:

• Time wasters: can be ignored without consequences
  • Check your email only x times/day (x: 1/2)
  • Separate phone lines for urgent vs non urgent
  • Direct people to communicate via: email > phone > in person
  • Avoid meetings. Replace them with email
  • Define end times for meetings. Ask for agendas.
  • Do not disturb me: headphones
  • Don’t check your email first thing in the morning
• Time consumers: repetitive tasks that take focus away
  • Batch the tasks at definite times
• Empowerment failures: need approval
  • Give people more freedom: remove yourself from being the bottleneck
  • Limit access to your time
• Note:
  • Impact on office life?
    • Socialization
    • Awareness from other people that you are there
    • Timeliness for certain tasks (reviews)
  • This only applies to certain positions/lifestyles

Automation

8. Outsourcing life

• Getting a virtual assistant Note: doesn’t feel relevant to me right now. Skippable

9. Income autopilot 1: Finding the product

1. Pick an affordably reachable niche market
   • Creating demand is harder than finding it
   • Easier with groups of people you associate yourself with
2. Brainstorm a product
   • Main benefit should be clear in one sentence
   • Price high. Lower number of high maintenance customers
   • Max 3-4 months to manufacture if it’s a physical good

Options:

• Resell a product
• License a product
• Create a product
  • Cheapest to create: information
  • Become an expert and resell the experience
  • How to become an expert? Cf. book

10. Income autopilot 2: testing the product

1. Test the market:
   • Best: look at the competition, set up a landing page
   • Test: google adwords with “real” checkout flow
   • Divest or invest

11. Income autopilot 3: automate

• Remove yourself from the decisions
• Automate as much of the process as possible
  • Including empowering outsources to make low impact expenses
• Make your business scalable using processes
• Ditch customers that have the potential to create problems
  • Less revenue but less headaches & expenses

Liberation

12. Disappearing act

• Trick to force working remotely.
• Process to negotiate a remote position Note: gotcha: only works with result-driven performance metrics

13. Beyond repair

Quit the job if it’s not right for you

14. Mini-retirements

• Longer term trips (months instead of days)
• Preparing for it:
  • Declutter your life
  • Other steps: cf. book
• Needs to be financed by cash flow from “muse”

Notes:

• Social life? Partner? Stability?
• Pappaledighet in SE: good chance to do it
• Prerequisite: 1st world passport

15. Filling the void

• “Post partum depression” is normal: too much free time
• Take time and reflect on what you want to do
• Tim’s take:
  • Constant learning
  • Service/Volunteering
• You can chose what you want to do without the money constraint

16. Top 13 mistakes

See book

17. The last chapter

Poem “Slow down”: I liked it