Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

Firewalker

Today I continued with the rules implemented yesterday – short to do list, important tasks first. But today in some sense went against the main pathos of Tim Farriss’ system – went to the office and it was a day full of meetings. Not all of these pointless, some really necessary but still...Also, my ‘to do’ list for tomorrow is already done.

KC, low-information diet means that one should consciously restrict the information they absorb every day. How much time we do spend reading magazines, journals, newspapers, internet sources etc.? Loads! But I will get back to this one in couple of days I think because what I am finding is that it is important to do things in order. Because of this today I have been mind-mapping the D of the DEAL – Definition.

According to Tim, there are many differences between the New Rich (NR) and the Deferrers (D) but I think that the main ones are: Ds want to work when they want, to retire young, to buy what they want and to have more things; the NR do not work for works sake (W4W), take regular time out, do things rather than buy, and have more quality and less clutter in their lives. I am also very impressed with the rules of the NR which are:

Retirement is worse case scenario not a goal
Interests and energy are cyclical
Less is not lazy (but doing less meaningless work which frees time for more activities that are meaningful to us)
Focus should be on being productive not being busy
Timing is never right so just do it
Ask forgiveness not permission
Emphasise strengths do not fix weaknesses (which reminds me of something I wrote about here a long time ago)
Excess becomes the opposite (too much fun can become boring)
Only money is not the solution
Relative income is more important than absolute income

I have calculated my relative income – it is your income over the time you have worked and can be expressed as £ per hour.

This is enough for today.

Firewalker

savingwannabe

I do love it when you think aloud. Firewalker people like you make the world a better place. Thank you.

Karmacat

Absolutely!

Thats an interesting list, FW - I'm trying to buy the book on ebay at the moment, as I have some paypal money I can use - I say "trying" because instead of just having "buy it now" they also have "or best offer" - but you cant include postage in that. So I'm trying to find out what postage is, because offer is just as committing as a purchase... we'll see.

Marru

I ordered the book yesterday while in the middle of very tedious reviews.

I generally like my work but the thing is that half of the month we work flat out and the other half there is not enough stuff to do. I don't really thrive in either of those extremes. (Yes we can prepare during the quiet period to make the busy one easier but there is only so much you can do that.)

Firewalker

OK, my friends, today my venture into the methods of Tim Farriss continued. First, I continued to implement his rules for the ‘to do’ list – two critical tasks; always think about whether these are important; complete at least one critical task before you do anything else. So today, I managed to mind map the reviews I got about a paper of mine (not good for the ego but absolutely necessary) and have asked my brain to start thinking about how to re-write the paper (or answer the comments when not taking into account). I mind-mapped my key tasks for this month – so no free falling. Only after that I started sending important e-mail messages around Europe. Oh, and I did resolve to check my e-mail twice a day but this did not work very well (apparently e-mail, and internet, is more addictive than cocaine).

Second, I did mind map the first letter of the DEAL (remember DEAL = definition, elimination, automation and liberation). There is a lot there but the three main messages for me were:

Unrealistic and unreasonable goals are easier to achieve – there is less competition and you fight harder.
Forget long term planning – plan only several steps ago if you were to avoid ‘analysis paralyses’.
We all aspire to be happy; but the opposite to happiness is not un-happiness but boredom. So what we need if we are to feel happy is to feel excited. Formulating goals is about what gets us excited.

And last but not least, I did have a go at defining my fear – since it was a very general nightmare of Dickensian proportions at the moment of writing it already appeared funny. It was more interesting for me to answer the question ‘if you lose your job tomorrow, how would you manage’. Guess what? We will manage and although this will demand re-organisation of our life it does not come even close to Dickens.

Well, this is it for tonight. How are you all doing?

Firewalker

Firewalker

Marru wrote: »

I ordered the book yesterday while in the middle of very tedious reviews.

I generally like my work but the thing is that half of the month we work flat out and the other half there is not enough stuff to do. I don't really thrive in either of those extremes. (Yes we can prepare during the quiet period to make the busy one easier but there is only so much you can do that.)

Maru, I suspect Tim would have said that you will have to manage to do the busy half month is shorter time (using his techniques) and use the other half for either things that will generate more income to fund your dreams, or for living the dreams themselves. To do that you will have to negotiate remote working. But please read the book - and do all exercises and things.

Firewalker

savingwannabe

Blooming heck Firewalker, where do you get the energy from? I have just finished teaching a night class who did rather well in their exams. One day i may pluck up the courage to read this book, you are so open to them and to change I am not. I want to change but find it sooo hard. Still when i read your thread i realise that it can be done.

One of my friends George taught me fantastic life lesson today. You have to look at the whole picture and not just the negative. The holistic view is far more positive and the world is a fantastic place and anything is possible but only if you remember. Hooray. Well I learned lots!

Karmacat

I love what you wrote, FW, especially about mindmapping the article, and the reviews. I'm away from next Thursday, and I really *want* that book to take with me .... I think I'll order from another supplier than the one I sent the query to.

Thanks for posting what you did ...

redsquirrel80

Firewalker wrote: »

Oh, and I did resolve to check my e-mail twice a day but this did not work very well (apparently e-mail, and internet, is more addictive than cocaine).

This is very interesting. I think I use the internet quite productively, and socially, but I wonder if I'd be more productive in general if I gave myself set times. I'm quite good at the weekends, I only check email etc once or twice a day, but during the week I'm constantly checking if there's anything new in emails/ forums etc. Definitely need to think about the 'less information' diet - how much of what I read is actually valuable to me? Interesting stuff, thanks FW.

It sounds like you're doing really well with it all :T

gilligansyle

FW have been reading but not posting, but will definitely print the last few days out to catch up on. Such good stuff. At the moment, we have a family crisis going on, so dare not be away from phone or emails,but once this is resolved will definitely be more productive.