The 4-Hour Workweek

Part 3 will cover step A: Automate Time-Consuming Activities of the DEAL process. Step A, like step E (Eliminate), explains how to make the time to achieve the dreamlines you set in step D (Define). This step tends to be the most difficult part of the process for entrepreneurs because they tend to like having control, and in this step, they have to give it up.

To achieve the 4HWW lifestyle, find a way to replace yourself. Almost anything and everything you do could be done by someone else.

The first step to automation is to hire a virtual assistant (VA). You should do this regardless of whether you’re an employee or entrepreneur, and even if you have enough time to do everything yourself. There are a few reasons:

VAs teach you to manage. Having a VA teaches you how to communicate, how to lead from a distance, how to give directions, and how to deal with people who don’t follow them. If you get a VA for between two weeks and a month, it should only cost between $100-400, and the experience should pay for itself within another two weeks.
VAs reinforce step E (Eliminate) of DEAL. Once you have to pay someone to do something, it’s going to be easier and more motivating to eliminate unimportant things. Having a VA will also force you to come up with rules for interruptions that require approval.

People hesitate to pay other people to do things they can do themselves, especially if it’s more economical to do it themselves. However, you’re not trying to save money in this chapter, you’re trying to save time.

Where to Find a Virtual Assistant (VA)

Since VAs work remotely, you can hire someone from anywhere in the world. There are advantages and disadvantages to hiring someone local vs. someone farther flung. Consider these four factors when choosing a VA:

Agency association. VA agencies exist all over the world and the author recommends going with a VA from a VA firm, or a VA who has a team. Then if one VA isn’t available, there’s backup. Additionally, you get people with diverse skills working for you.
- For example, VA agencies Brickwork and Your Man in India both use this structure. When you sign up with either agency, you’re assigned a personal account manager who corresponds with you, and then assigns your tasks to whichever person on their team is most suitable.
Time zone mismatches. If you choose someone who lives in a different time zone than you, this can work in your favor—if you ask a VA to do something at the end of your day, they’ll work while you’re sleeping, and you’ll have an answer first thing the next day.
Language. If you choose someone international, there may be a language barrier. Communication problems take up both your time and the VA’s time, which increases costs. When contacting a firm, ask for someone who has very good English and say that phone calls will be required, even if they won’t be. Request someone new if there are communication problems. If you choose someone local, you’re probably both native English speakers.
Cost. If you hire someone from a country with a weaker currency than the US, your cost per hour will be cheaper. The author says VAs from India, China, and other countries can range from $4-15/hour. $4/hour is for simple tasks, and $15 gets you PhD complexity. US or Canadian VAs tend to charge $25-100/hour. When comparing costs, consider total cost as well as hourly cost. If someone more expensive gets something done faster, your bill may be lower overall. Also consider the per hour cost of your own time—a language barrier might mean you have to spend more time answering questions or rewording your directions.

The best way to choose a VA is to trial people you’re interested in. Assign a one-off project or a small recurring task, ideally something daily. To work on your communication skills, choose non-native English-speaking VAs initially, but use local help for any language-intensive tasks.

What to Delegate

Regardless of whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, you can assign your VA both personal and professional tasks.

Regarding personal tasks: your non-working time isn’t free if you have other non-work obligations, and VAs provide all sorts of personal services ranging from voicemail transcription, to organizing your child’s birthday, to even emailing your parents for you.

Regarding professional tasks: VAs can help you out with anything that can be done remotely. If you’re an employee, as long as you don’t give the VA sensitive or confidential parts of your job, the author says there’s no legal or ethical reason to tell your boss you’re employing someone to do parts of your job for you. (Shortform note: You may want to check your employee contract and/or handbook before doing this.)

To brainstorm tasks you might be able to delegate, consider:

Whatever’s been on your to-do list the longest.
- For example, a small business might ask a VA to help them update their website.
Anything that interrupts you.
- For example, you might ask a VA to filter your emails for you.
Whatever causes you the most emotional strife.
- For example, if you have anxiety around talking on the phone, you could ask your VA to make calls for you.
Something that’s fun.
- For example, whenever Howard Hughes of The Aviator wanted to invite a woman to his table in Las Vegas, he asked one of his assistants to approach her for him and get her to sign a waiver before she joined him.

Assume the best of people—believe that they can do more than grunt work. But if a VA doesn’t do something well, remember that you can always take it back yourself.

Delegation Criteria

Once you’ve come up with some possibly delegatable tasks, test them against the following criteria:

Tasks must be important. As mentioned in step E (Eliminate), the first thing to do to save time is to stop doing unimportant things. Before you delegate anything, first consider if you could eliminate it from your life or make it more efficient instead. If you delegate something unimportant or needlessly time-consuming, you may be saving yourself time, but you’re wasting a VA’s time, which also wastes your money.
- Example #1: You could ask a VA to help you read your email, but you could also set up automatic filters and autoresponders that answer common questions.
- Example #2: Many people ask assistants to schedule meetings for them, but if you can just eliminate meetings, this is another task no one has to.
Tasks must be time-consuming. If it takes you longer to assign a task than it would for you to do it, it’s not a good candidate.
- For example, it takes a long time to write a book. The author asked some of his VAs to write part of this chapter for him.
Tasks must be specific. If you don’t know exactly what the task is or involves, keep it yourself.
- For example, say you want to improve your relationship with your mother. This is a vague task with no specific actionables, so don’t assign it.
Tasks must be remote-friendly. Your VA won’t have physical access to your computer, calendar, or hard copy files, so you may need to get software or an app to streamline things.
- For example, if you’re going to ask your VA to schedule meetings for you, both you and your VA will need access to an online syncable calendar.

Delegation Questionnaire

When deciding whether you should eliminate, delegate, or do a task yourself, consider the following:

You should eliminate the task if the answer to all of these questions is yes:
- Is it unenjoyable?
- Is its effect on your income negligible?
- Is it optional?
You should delegate the task if the answer to any of the following questions is yes:
- Is it unenjoyable AND does it generate income AND is it possible to delegate?
- Is it obligatory AND possible to delegate?
You should do the task yourself if the answer to any of the following questions is yes:
- Will it be enjoyable?
- Does it generate income AND would be impossible to delegate?

How to Assign Tasks

It’s important to clearly communicate tasks to your VA. If you’re not used to giving directions, assume most initial problems are your fault because you failed to explain tasks well. When you write to your VA to assign them a task, do all of the following as part of your initial email:

Be specific with your directions. Regardless of what languages your VA speaks, write English at a grade 2 reading level and make sure there is only one way to read each of your sentences. Ask your VA to rephrase your directions to make sure they understand before they get started.
Ask the VA to report back to you in a few hours with a status update. This will help you control the amount of time spent and let you know if a task is impossible.
Give short deadlines. Everything should be due within 72 hours and ideally within 24-48. This mitigates Parkinson’s Law. If you do need a long-term or bigger task done, divide it into chunks. Short deadlines are a good argument for having a team of VAs—a team won’t be overwhelmed the same way a single person juggling many clients and/or tasks might.
Send a maximum of two tasks at a time. If you send more than one, tell the VA which is priority.

Privacy and Security Concerns

Problems with privacy or security are rare. In the only case of information abuse the author found while researching the book, the problem was freelance help that a very busy US-based VA contracted at the last minute.

Established VA firms such as Brickwork have many security measures including nondisclosure agreements, encryption, and secure connections—probably a lot more than you have on your own computer.

Follow these rules to avoid problems:

Use credit instead of debit. It’s much easier and faster to reverse credit card charges than debit ones.
Don’t reuse passwords. If your VA needs to login to any websites, make sure that website has a unique password from all the other sites you access. If the VA needs to make new logins anywhere, they should use the logins and passwords you give them. This is especially important if your VA is accessing live commercial websites.
Never use anyone untested. Don’t work with any new hires and never let anyone working for you subcontract anyone new.