Note: I’m travelling for the next few weeks, so I may be posting a bit less than usual.

“Whether a yearlong sabbatical, a new business idea, reengineering your life within the corporate beast, or dreams you’ve postponed for “some day,” there has never been a better time for testing the uncommon.”

Have you thought much about lifestyle design? Most of us save our plans for our ideal lifestyle for when we’re retired. Now, I’m not one to discourage retirement saving – definitely a good idea! – but time is also a limiting factor. Is it worth working hard today to free up more time in retirement? Or would it be better to take more free time today, even if it means having less retirement? Our retirements have increased dramatically in length in recent decades, but it seems possible we’d be better spending some of that time off in advance (say with a 4-hour work week), and working a little later in our lives.

Ferriss is one of these guys that if you’ve done an MBA, you probably couldn’t avoid hearing about him. He appeals specifically to people who feel trapped in an investment banker or consultant-style life, and feel like they’re missing out on other things in life. The book is basically an extensive application of the 80/20 rule: that you can get 80% of the results you want for only 20% of the effort, or conversely you can avoid 80% of the problems by doing 20% less. Applied to life, that says that if you redesign your life a little, you can free up a lot of time (though sadly, 20% of a forty hour work week is 8 hours – math is once again sacrificed to salesmanship), which you can then use for the things that really matter.

Sounds reasonable, and I think we could all do a better job focusing on what matters instead of getting caught up in the rat race. How Ferriss chooses to spend his time is not what I would choose: Wikipedia suggests he spends the bulk of his time self-promoting, and I suspect there’s a grain of truth in that. He won a kickboxing championship in China, for example, by carefully reading the rules, temporarily dropping 30 pounds just before the weigh in, and then just pushing the other competitors out of the ring with his much greater size. Permitted by the rules, but I’m not sure I’d find it satisfying. His advice also isn’t exactly the golden rule, doing unto others. Still, reminders to focus on what’s important are always good, and his advice to seek the millionaire lifestyle if that’s what you want, rather than money for the sake of money, is spot on. I’m sure he’d agree his choices are not for everyone, but we might all enjoy a 4-hour work week.