Everett Bogue
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Everett Bogue quit his day job to try and "pursue a minimalist location-independent life." He supports himself by blogging at Far Beyond the Stars and on the sales of his two e-books, The Art of Being Minimalist and Minimalist Business. He doesn't need a whole lot because he doesn't own very much, having tossed everything away until he owns just 57 things. (although he counts 20 socks in 10 pairs to be one thing). Of course, he doesn't own a car. ( I wrote about him earlier in Living A Minimalist Lifestyle: Tips From Everett Bogue.)
He as also found that when you don't have a lot of stuff, then you don't have to work very hard; he tries to limit his work to two hours a day. He has written about how he does this in a free ebook and makes a lot of good points; following them might not get you down to two hours per day but it will save some time.
Bogue does have a different view of work than many; in his list of benefits of 2 hour workdays, one is "More time for learning, research, reading which can maximize profits."- I call that work, it is part of my job, even if I enjoy it. He is also young, single and healthy, and at times seems a bit naive. But he is making a living writing about it, so it is worth a look.
Some are less than sensible if you are in the writing biz, such as Don't read blogs..." most of them aren’t worth reading. I only have a couple of blogs that I really enjoy, I unsubscribe from the rest." -you can get trapped in a world of the people you follow and never expand your world view. I do the exact opposite and set up Google alerts on the subjects I am interested in and read dozens of new ones every week.
Don’t read newspapers..."Newspapers will make you very aware of all of the things you can’t have an effect on in the world." Both of these tips are not only counterproductive for a job in writing, but are typical of the person so sure of their own opinions that they don't need or want to ever hear anyone else's. This is how we get a world of polarized politics and culture and I think profoundly mistaken.
But others make a lot of sense these days:
Don’t accept phone calls. Here’s another big time-sucker of yesteryear. Business doesn’t need to be done over the phone anymore. Reserve actual audio for a select few influential people, and instead give people simple and precise methods to get in touch with you, such as Twitter. This way you don’t end up on the phone for extended periods of time with no real objective.
Telephone usage is dropping, particularly among young people, while text messaging is booming. I find that I much prefer communicating on skype chat than on the phone; I can get my message out in a few words and have a record of it. He is right about this one.
Go paperless. Paper isn’t searchable, it costs money to print things on it. You’ll streamline your business, eliminate clutter, and also move into the future if you stop using paper for your business.
One I really like is: Make a certain group of people angry at you.
One of the most powerful ways to work less is to live your life in a way that pisses some people off. True story. For example, I’m constantly telling people that owning a car is evil, because I want more people to drive less. I don’t own a car, so I can say that. Yes, it makes a lot of car driving people incredibly angry at me, I’m okay with that. If you make everyone happy, you don’t create change.
This is absolutely true; if you don't have a position to sell, if you are afraid to offend anyone, then you are probably not having much of an impact.
Everett Bogue is young, without a lot of baggage, and living in a fashion that few of us can. He is selling words, a product that has become very easy to package and distribute at low cost; there are not that many people around who can emulate his lifestyle. He is proud of the fact that he wrote the book in four hours; I think it shows, there is some content that that will make you cringe, a few times where the author clearly shows his age.
But there are nuggets here that make it worth reading and hey, the price is right. Download it at Far Beyond the Stars.
