Moving places sometimes sucks. It’s almost impossible to build a library of books. Hard copies are simply too heavy and too big to carry in suitcases.
I left far too many books with friends in Sydney. At first, I told them to hold on to it, and later, chuck them away. It also happened when I left Sweden. And now it is happening again because I moved my office to a smaller room. We gave the bigger room for my infant son to learn how to crawl.
In this small office, I don’t have much space for physical books. I look at several piles of books we shipped across the oceans. The four-hour workweek beckoned for my attention. I cast my memory to 2007 when it was first published. It was the first self-help book I’ve read.
The world back then was different to what it is now. Ferriss was one of the first authors who talked about the benefit of automating email responses and about automating everyday tasks to virtual assistants.
Even though the book mainly contains practical how-tos, I mostly remembered a poem called Slow Dance at the end of the book. The poem repeated this line: You better slow down, don’t dance too fast, time is short, the music won’t last
I felt it resonated with me so much. As time started to speed up, I would miss on things happening to my life if I wasn’t paying attention. It was the productivity book that started my productivity obsession. It became imperative to do things “efficiently”, no matter what I was doing. It was the opposite of being mindful and meaningful about my actions.
However, I don’t blame the book for my de-tour. It was just my interpretation at the time. I have learned a lot from my mistake since.
I counted eight hard copies in total. Bye-bye books. We are donating them to our local library. Hopefully, the next person reading them will get as much benefit as I did. Thank you for travelling with me all this while.