How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another Phone Call… 170 Comments

Written by Topics: E-mail Detox, Low-Information Diet, Outsourcing Life, Remote Offices

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“I must create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s.”
-William Blake

Forget the paperless office — it’s aiming too low.

Let’s take a look at the bigger picture: a paperless life. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate three other nuisances: answering the phone, checking voicemail, and returning phone calls.

Is this possible? It is. The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossible” is asking the right question: “How would you do ____ for a week if your life depended on it?” Most things considered impossible just haven’t been looked at through the “how” lens of lateral thinking. Here are a few exercise questions for Paperless Life 101:

What would you have to do to never again touch mail?
What would you have to do to never touch another check?
What would you have to do to never touch another dollar?

Consider these questions as real questions. If I offered you a million dollars to do each of these things for a month, could you do it? Here are a just a few potential strategies for doing all three, then we’ll move on to phone games:

1. No more mail:
First, we need to cut out the crap — reduce volume. To begin, get removed from junk mail lists and common commercial mailing lists. There are a few ways to do this: 1) Get remove from the most common junkmail lists (this costs a few dollars in some cases) and check alternative strategies at www.stopjunkmail.org, 2) Use LifeLock, or another identity protection service, which automatically removes you from large mailing lists, one of the most common vehicle for identity theft. Last, we’ll have your mail forwarded to special processing centers, where it is all scanned and emailed to you. One popular service is called Remote Control Mail, and there are two big benefits to the time-focused and mobile-minded: relevant postal mail is funneled into e-mail, so you can check both email and postal mail at once (“batching” both at the same time); you can travel freely whenever and wherever without ever missing a letter.

2. No more checks — this is the easiest and most familiar:
-Set up online banking so you can issue checks directly from your bank, and set up automatic recurring payments
-Give your accountant power of attorney to sign specific checks (for tax documents, etc.) on your behalf. Power of attorney is no joke, so do your homework, but it can be used — as I do — with little risk. This approach not only cuts down on checks but also finance-related mail, which you can then forward to your accountant for handling start-to-finish.

3. No more cash — easier than you think:
I hate cash, and I hate coins even more. Why don’t men’s wallets have pockets? In all cases, getting rid of physical wampum is more about breaking personal habit than overcoming external resistance. For the last several months, I’ve replaced a brick of a wallet with a razor-thin money clip holding four credit cards (Business Platinum AMEX, business Chase Continental Mastercard, personal AMEX, personal Mastercard), one debit card for emergencies, and health/car insurance. I haven’t had a single problem. Some smaller shops will prefer that you cover coffee with cash, for example, but credit is accepted.

Paper cuts fingers and kills forests, but what of the damn 9-to-5 headaches? How can you eliminate the need to answer the phone, check voicemail, or return phone calls? Here are a few quick fixes:

1. No more answering the phone:
Use a service like GrandCentral to listen to voicemail as they’re being left. Each caller is required to announce their name before the call is dialed, and you are able to preview the name and send them to voicemail, where you can listen to their message as they leave it. If you want to speak with them, you can jump in. If not, let them leave a voicemail and — at the set times when you batch — go to step 2.

2. No more voicemail:
Get your voicemail delivered to your e-mail inbox, which then serves as your single communications “funnel”. This would be our single “bucket” in the parlance of David Allen, and our remote control postal mail joins the voicemail here: e-mail, postal mail, and voicemail all in one place. GrandCentral can e-mail audio files, but for those who want text, Simulscribe is a popular option with near 90% transcription accuracy. Stop managing separate inputs from office phone voicemail, cell phone voicemail, and multiple email accounts. Consolidate. To further encourage all people to communicate with you via e-mail, there are two approaches that I’ve used effectively: indicate in your voicemail greeting that people must leave their e-mail address, and respond to them via e-mail; use Jott to send a voice message to them as an e-mail.

3. No more returning calls:
Pinger enables you to send voicemail to people without calling them. Why would you want to do that? From their website:

We’ve all been there-you make a call and think to yourself, “please don’t pick up”, or you call and think “I hope I’m not interrupting…” With Pinger you leave the message at your convenience, and they get it at their convenience. Unlike voicemail, there is no ringing, no annoying prompts, no lengthy greetings — just your message.

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None of these strategies are perfect, but they do demonstrate that none of our impossible questions are impossible to answer. Once you frame the question in terms of “how would I…?”, it is entirely possible to stop tolerating most of life’s annoyances and eliminate them altogether.

Did you like this? Please take a second to Digg it here and I’ll focus on more of doing the impossible, tech lifehacks, etc.

Posted on June 14th, 2007

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170 Comments

  • Andrew — June 14th, 2007, 11:32 pm

    Dude, you’ve been to Latin America, you KNOW that you can not function down there with cash–I want to say something like 80% of all Colombians do not even have a bank account, and the percentage that actually have a credit card is far fewer, and this is generally representative of most Latin American countries, I believe.

    Now, there aren’t very MANY places left in the U.S. that only take cash, but there are a few so I still contend that it’s a good idea to keep on you.

    Regardless, it was still and interesting and informative post, keep it coming.

    Cheers!
    Andrew

    Reply

  • Jaya Schillinger — June 14th, 2007, 11:33 pm

    Great tips! I’ve been already trying to reduce input in some of these areas…

    -Postal Mail: I’ve been making an effort to call individual vendors (catalogues & charities mostly) to stop sending me stuff. It’s a bit time-consuming, but the bulk mail stop services can’t stop these.

    -Biz Voicemail: I started using a virtual PBX about 6-months ago for my biz, and LOVE it (RingCentral.com) My clients only have to remember one #, and all my messages/faxes get sent to my blackberry.

    Now you’re making me think about consolidating my personal voicemail to an email sevice too. One small step I made was to turn my cellphone v.m. off, and have it forward to my home v.m. instead. (So I’ve got one inbox for personal vm.)

    So while I’m off to a good start, you TOTALLY raised the bar with having postal mail emailed out. You are definitly ‘ninja’ with reducing information input!

    Reply

  • Lukas Rohr — June 15th, 2007, 12:31 am

    Hey Tim,
    In Switzerland men’s wallets do have pockets for change. As far as I know we are the only ones to have this. I also hate loose change. Curious to hear whether there are other countries where men’s wallets come standard with a coin pocket.

    Cheers, Lukas

    Reply

  • Tim Ferriss — June 15th, 2007, 1:20 am

    Hi Andrew,

    I need a few more gallons of coffee. LOL… you are absolutely right. I should have qualified my post: these recommendations are definitely targeted at the post-industrial knowledge worker economies (North America, Western Europe, Japan, etc.). Broadband-enabled, credit-based, cell-phone-wielding populations. Trying to use a credit card at a kiosk in Ecuador or restaurant in rural Armenia will get you a nice laugh. “Where’s the closest Bank of America ATM?” will get you an even bigger laugh ;)

    Very good observation. Thanks for pointing that out!

    Tim

    Reply

    • Nikolaus Cortolezis — November 19th, 2011, 5:25 pm

      Hey folks,

      but even in Armenia and Ecuador, there are cash-machines. My bank granted me a Mastercard-special that enables me to get money from any cash-machine in the WOLRD without charge! If fees arise, they’ll pay it. Get a deal like that with your bank too, I simply love it. And yes, I also use my Amex wenever cashless is possible, but here in good old Europe it’s not the same, many places will only take cash…

      Cheers out

      Reply

  • Victory Darwin — June 15th, 2007, 1:42 am

    “How would you do ____ for a week if your life depended on it?�

    WOW! THIS IS HUGE! This is a powerful way to break any habit.

    I used to be a total PDA nerd. My last unit broke in France and when I returned to Canada I was curious to see how long I could go entirely without a celphone, since it had already been 7 days incident free.

    6 months later I still don’t have one! And I run 2 companies with several employees. If someone would have bet me $1,000 if I could go a month without my phone, I wouldn’t have taken the bet. It just seemed impossible. Today I wonder why I ever needed one. My wife loves it too!

    So in my own words “Challenge yourself to [adopt new behavior] for 7 days… then just see what happens. You will have to find new solutions to cope. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with.

    Thanks for the repiphany Tim! (re-epiphany)

    JOIN MY 4HWW NING!
    http://4hwwLINKEDINbusinesswarriors.ning.com

    80/20 rule Web 3.0 tools Outsourcing = 4HWW . Discuss, collaborate, partner up! 4 hour workweek? . Is it Possible? . Do we need $1M/yr to live the millionaire lifestyle?

    Reply

  • Andrew Wikie — June 15th, 2007, 3:52 am

    I’m in the beginnings of setting up my paperless office. Any ideas or need for a document management system for a SOHO/Remote office?

    Reply

  • Perfect Life Project — June 15th, 2007, 3:59 am

    Tim,

    Love the sentiment. I think the best tip though is your challenge “How would you do ____ for a week if your life depended on it?� it is this sort of thinking that is required for us to turn conventional lifestyles on their head and build the life we want. Asking yourself this question can unlock a world of possibilities.

    Reply

  • Florian — June 15th, 2007, 4:31 am

    Tim,

    I don’t mean to be an arse. But I believe that even in Western Europe it’s not always easy to get by with only a credit card. I’m living in Berlin for example and a lot of bigger places accept debit cards. But a lot of smaller shops, like corner shops, small cafes, ice cream shops only accept cash.

    I agree though, the no-cash way would be great. Also because that way it’s easier to track at the end of the month where all your money is went.

    Reply

  • Dan — June 15th, 2007, 5:21 am

    Is this just the precursor to project mayhem…

    Reply

  • Tim Walker — June 15th, 2007, 7:55 am

    Good stuff, Tim. Like the previous poster, I think the big this is the structural question: “Could I live without this?” The reality — which you’ve so aptly described in your book — is that *most* of what we read and *most* of the e-mail we send/receive and *most* of the conversations we have from day to day (. . . et cetera) are fungible. If it’s fungible, try doing without it altogether.

    Just to throw a wrench in the works: you can even do without e-mail, if you have some other key replacement for communications. Example: Hank Paulson has never used e-mail in his life, but when he was running Goldman he would sometimes make 400 calls in a day, many of them to the v.m. boxes of Goldman staff. They knew how to reach him, he knew how to reach them (or just leave a message without talking to them), and lots of stuff got DONE.

    We proceed with our cast-iron assumptions until something comes along that shakes them up. More power to you as you *keep* shaking up our assumptions.

    Reply

  • Yann — June 15th, 2007, 9:43 am

    Hi Tim,

    I’m a big GTD fan, so I’ve been implementing some of those for a while now, but the whole “no phone calls, everything by email” just doesn’t fly with most clients, at least in my field (design & web design/development). It doesn’t matter if you answer their questions they left you on voicemail by email religiously, they just *want* (not need…) to talk to you. You can definitely get your point across by forwarding all your calls straight to mailbox and answering most of them by email, but somehow it doesn’t satisfy them…

    If you have a secret recipe for this case scenario, I sure would love to read about it :)

    Thanks for the book, take care.

    Reply

  • Leonard Klaatu — June 15th, 2007, 11:20 am

    Seems the main marketing man for LifeLock has a sordid past that is catching up with him. It’s a great idea, but integrity is everything in any security business. FYI.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-lifelock_15bus.ART.State.Edition1.36d72b7.html

    Reply

  • christysblog — June 15th, 2007, 12:08 pm

    [...] I haven’t read the book yet but I am planning on it. I only just met him : ). Check out his post today. His concept of never having to open mail, check voice mail, basically a paperless life. Can [...]

  • Joshua — June 15th, 2007, 12:51 pm

    Tim,

    Thanks for changing the RSS feed options so that it sends the whole article and not just the teaser. (At least, I think you changed it…we’ll see with the next post whether it comes through in its entirety too.)

    I enjoy your blog but it was driving me nuts to only get the teaser and I was about to ditch it as I refuse to keep the “teaser feeds.” Having to “click through” to the site doesn’t help my batch processing of the blogs I like!

    Reply

  • mobmash blog » Blog Archive » links for 2007-06-16 — June 15th, 2007, 7:26 pm

    [...] » How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Anot… (tags: gtd lifehacks productivity to-read list) [...]

  • Andrew Johnson — June 16th, 2007, 1:08 am

    I have a Vonage VoIP phone which I use for all things non-personal. Voicemail goes to one of my e-mail inbox’s. Last month I did not check it once. It turned out all the messages left were completely unimportant!

    Reply

  • Mari Smith — June 16th, 2007, 2:20 am

    BRILLIANT! Tim, you are my new guru – LOL. My hubby and I just sold our beach home in San Diego (after 14 months on the market, I might add)… and we’ve decided to sell off all our belongings, buy an RV, and take a sabbatical (mini-retirement!) for 6, maybe 12 months or more! We’ve got our sites set on Alaska… then the whole of Canada & US. YAH! Sooooo, this blog post on going paperless was perfect timing – we’re getting set up with all these fab resources. Thanks a gazillion!! (And we’re busy devouring your book and CDs too!!) – this is totally changing our lives. :)
    Cheers!
    Mari

    Reply

  • Michael Long — June 16th, 2007, 3:20 am

    I’m backwards on the cash thing. I prefer to use cash at most restaurants, as I’ve had my credit card number swiped three times by waiters moonlighting as identity thieves. I tend to reserve my card for the situations when I know it’s not going to leave my sight.

    Like you, however, I hate change. Any I collect usually gets dumped immediately in some donation jar (there’s always one around for some cause or the other).

    I have a bank branch in my local grocery store, so no ATM fees and no extra trips needed.

    Reply

  • Mia — June 16th, 2007, 9:38 am

    Tim,
    I have been thinking some of these things for a long time but have never really come across someone who doesn’t think they are insane – until now. I love the outsourcing ideas. And I have been taking mini retirements for my whole adult life – in fact it is a very Australian thing to do. Loads of people in Australia plan their lives around these.
    Good on ya for taking these ideas and trying them out,
    Mia

    Reply

  • Joel Mueller — June 16th, 2007, 9:53 am

    Is it true that Earth Class Mail’s only street address is that strange “Beaverton Oregon” one? If so, that’s a major bummer for parcel shipping that don’t go to PO Boxes. They should change their format like UPS Stores so they are all Street Addresses with a suite number that represents the box. I’m not sure how many people would want a Beaverton address vs. a SF addy. ;)

    Reply

  • Cade @ Write To Right — June 16th, 2007, 12:29 pm

    Tim thanks so much for your site. I currently work at a sales floor and have been attempting to work hard blogging at the same time, but the job has been in the way. I listened to your audiobook and I have been taking some serious looks at what I can take out. I realized what consumes my day the most and is the most ineffective work is my phone calls. I work for a $100 million company that has solid leads and I do well, but I have realized I can do more with these leads by doing less. Instead of calling several times a day, I will call once and leave a message. I will alter the times each day for the one call. Before I would call a lot and leave only one initial message and one final message at the end of the two week cycle. I think I can save more time and increase my sales. Any other suggestions you may have I would appreciate it. Thanks for helping to inspire me to change my life.

    Reply

  • Jessup — June 16th, 2007, 2:25 pm

    In Japan most people carry around cash, even for large purchases. Few people have and use credit cards.

    Reply

  • Jon — June 16th, 2007, 3:10 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Very interesting indeed, as usual…
    Living in the UK, I am interested to know if you, or anyone reading this, knows of a service like GrandCentral or Remote Control Mail, which is available to UK residents…?

    Can someone email me if they do know! reachjm at googlemail.com

    Many thanks guys and gals! Appreciated!!

    Jon :-)

    Reply

  • Captain Flint — June 16th, 2007, 4:20 pm

    Tim, thanks for your tips on reducing unwanted crap like junk mail and batching your personal communications together. I’ve taken your advice recently about being removed from commercial mailing lists. As for communications I’ll hold on to my cell phone for now because I find it convenient. Also I consolidated my e-mail addresses recently (I had 5 different ones) and had them all forward to a single Gmail account.

    Regarding the comment on eliminating cash I try and use a credit card as much as I can and I’m searching around for one that gives the best rewards for using it (cash back, travel miles, etc).

    Cheers, Cpt. Flint

    Reply

  • Drew Kerr — June 16th, 2007, 8:53 pm

    Tim,
    Nice blog entry. I have been cashless for a while. All I carry is my ID & Card. Thats it. The only problem with having a card out at the bar or club is they start a tab and the bill can add up quick when you not pulling out cash to pay for every round of drinks!

    Drew

    Reply

  • Sterling — June 17th, 2007, 4:01 pm

    Hey Tim,

    I’ve been a ‘phoneless’ business for quite some time, but to be mail-less would be a dream. I’m going through your recommendation later today to set that up. Thanks for the info!

    I actually have calls that come in go to a voicemail that says to contact me via email. I go through email once a day. This has been working very well, but now I thing I will do the Simulscribe thing and see how that works as well. I liked having the caller decide how important the call was by requiring them to write down the email I gave them in my greeting, then have them take the second step of having to email me, but who knows how many possible customers I may have lost with this old system? To Simulscribe I go! Thanks again.

    Sterling

    Reply

  • ERB Tech » Blog Archive » Paperless Life - No Phones or Snail Mail Anymore — June 18th, 2007, 7:52 am

    [...] Tim Ferriss at his blog Four Hour Work Week wrote a great article titled: How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… [...]

  • Brian Jacks — June 18th, 2007, 12:10 pm

    I like hard cash, for a number of reasons. If you use cash you are lot less likely to get into debt – apart from when you borrow a tenner off a mate, which is also something you can’t do with a card. Cash keeps you grounded, if you have your weeks wages in cash you know exactly how much money you have to spend and budgeting becomes easier. Cash is accepted *everywhere*. And finally: how would I be able to buy weed without cash?

    Reply

  • Dan — June 18th, 2007, 1:28 pm

    Congratulations mate on making the bestseller lists, you deserve it.

    As about 10% of your visitors are from my neck of the woods (UK) I wondered if a few people from the UK that are implementing Tim’s ideas are interested in meeting up to make friends and spur eachother on? I think 7 is the magic number. There are already 2 of us so we are looking for another 5 people. If you are interested click my name on this comment and use my email address on my site, look forward to talking. Sorry for squatting T.

    Reply

  • thoughtsforthoughts — June 18th, 2007, 1:52 pm

    I have read the 4 hour workweek book of yours and its wonderful. This part is as well covered in that book. I have also put on the review of this book in one of my blogs too.

    Reply

  • Trevor — June 19th, 2007, 8:44 am

    Very good insight! This was my first time visiting the site – I’m saving it to my favorites now and am putting the book on my list of must reads…

    Reply

  • Troy Gardner — June 20th, 2007, 8:06 pm

    I live in the LA and have been on a kick to not eat at
    home (time savings in shopping/prep/cleanup increased variety, like mini-vacations), spending most the day in cafes/eating out of small restaurants (around $6 a meal), having cash is required, as typically $10 is the minimum for using…even a debit card (bastards!)

    Wallet. check out http://www.nobulges.com/ made of sailcloth. Like you I opt to only carry the minimum cards. Some are mini cards, since I keep local there are also frequent buyer cards which add up to free drinks/meals.

    RE: Paperless
    I make it a policy to ‘never let it hit the pocket’

    if you do networking or track reciepts, get a portable camera (e.g. Casio EXILIM), and just take pictures, to OCR, put in quicken later. It’s also useful for doing product research, addresses, collect and forget cards (I mean business cards) and the batteries last for weeks.

    Reply

  • Troy Gardner — June 20th, 2007, 8:10 pm

    Oh yeah, BankOfAmerica has e-billing for most major vendors, I’m sure other institutions are the same. Meaning that 100% of my regular bills are recieved in my ‘inbox’ and paid automatically, and you can still view the bills/statements (html PDF), SO much easier than a file cabinet. Saturday I was able to collect the amount kWh and Therms spent on electricity and gas, for the last 6 months in about 15 minutes..

    Reply

  • Zen Zoomie — June 21st, 2007, 11:23 pm

    Tim, just wanted to let you know how much I loved the book. I don’t agree with everything in there, but overall it really hit home. I’ve been thinking about starting my own business for at least 10 years, and this book gave me the bump I needed to finally do it (I’ve listened to it twice on audio & purchased the hard copy!).
    If you have time, check out what I’m up to at http://www.zenzoomie.com.

    Reply

  • Andrew — June 22nd, 2007, 11:10 am

    On the topic of cool services that increase productivity–check out http://teleflip.com. You can use it to send an SMS message to any US/Canadian cellphone via email, regardless of provider. It’s still free. The replies go back to your inbox.

    Example:

    2125551234@teleflip.com

    Reply

  • Andrew — June 22nd, 2007, 11:19 am

    Here’s the URL to the actual service description:
    https://www.teleflip.com/blog/services/flipout/

    Reply

  • Charles Masterson — June 22nd, 2007, 10:38 pm

    I prefer Dan Kennedy’s solution. You can fax him. To Phone him you need to fax him for an appointment first. A good fax service can be accessed in any number of ways from any location.

    Reply

  • Victory Darwin — June 23rd, 2007, 10:27 pm

    In Victoria, the city now sells cards that work in the parking meters which takes that lump of change out of my pocket as well as saving me from $30 tickets.

    hey Charles, yep Dan K has always lived these exact time management philosophies Tim teaches. His NO B.S. time management book is a nice compliment to 4HWW.

    BTW… our NING group is about to break 50 members. (2nd biggest 4HWW Ning is 14 members… so 50 is pretty good).

    The topics are 4HWW (Lifestyle design,Outsourcing, 80/20 rule), Web 3.0 (mashables, widgets, the future of Linkedin),
    Thanks Tim for directing us to NING!

    http://4hwwlinkedinbusinesswarriors.ning.com

    Reply

  • Nancy — June 25th, 2007, 2:52 am

    Nice tips. I also don’t like loose change. It’s very annoying. However, like what Andrew said, some don’t have a bank accounts and it would be difficult to do transactions in places where most people use cash.

    Reply

  • Jennifer — June 25th, 2007, 8:50 am

    The today interview was interesting… Did they even want to hear about the 4 hr workweek? Another example of how in this country we waste lots of time talking at each other and not listening to or learning from each other. BTW You looked sane and he looked stressed and angry. That alone is an endorsement for your book!

    Reply

  • Nancy — June 25th, 2007, 8:20 pm

    I’m also tired of answering phone calls. It would be a waste if we don’t take advantage of the benefits offered by those services.

    Reply

  • Mike Stankavich — June 26th, 2007, 7:47 am

    First off, thanks Tim for a great book. I love your willingess, even perhaps obsession with challenging every conventional wisdom assumption in sight.

    I also have a specific response for Joel Mueller. If you would like to check out an alternative service to handle parcel mail, check out http://usabox.com/what.asp. USAbox uses Miami addresses. I have never used them, but I have heard good things about them from some other expat communities.

    Reply

  • Mike Stankavich — June 26th, 2007, 7:49 am

    ARGH! Apparently you can’t deeplink the “What is USAbox?” page at http://usabox.com. Go to the home page, check out the What Is link on the upper left.

    Reply

  • Tim Warren — June 26th, 2007, 10:59 am

    I own several businesses and used to be tied to my CrackBerry and cellphone. About two weeks ago, my one-year daughter thought it would be cool to place them into the toliet and watch them swirl around a bit. Needless to say, both are no longer functional and I have not missed either one since. In fact, I terminated both and have one VM box (personal and work) that my assist. checks for me and transcribes the important ones to e-mail. Out of all the VMs (about 50 per week), she only sends me 4, of which I usually only need to deal with one.

    It is easy to think of excuses why not to put some or all of Ferris’ principles to work-Its hard to think how to make them work because it is counter to our culture and society. I’ve enjoyed the new mindset and “teaching” my employees and customers how to best communicate with me effectively (which is less rather than more).

    Reply

  • Richard Lee » Progress Report On Implementing 4HWW Concepts — June 26th, 2007, 1:55 pm

    [...] do what I wanted it to. I was still working on that system when I saw GrandCentral mentioned on the 4HWW blog. I looked into it and was delighted to find that the GrandCentral system actually does for free [...]

  • Barbara D — June 26th, 2007, 9:23 pm

    I enjoyed your video interview and wanted to hear your opinion on “dating.” I think the more a. independent, b. financially wealthy, and c. emotionally healthy you are, the more challenging it is to meet a “qualified” potential mate (I think more-so as a woman).

    I’ve got my vision and list of qualities I would like to have in an ideal partnership, and am finding very few venues in which to meet men that are at the same place in life and heart as I am. The pool of eligible men becomes smaller the further up-the-ladder I advance in my life.

    Many are either threatened by my success and lifestyle, or looking for someone to take care of them financially.

    Had poor experience with online dating sites, though I’ve been a successfull IMer for over 5 years. Something gets lost not being able to look into someones face and feel their energy…

    Your thoughts and experiences?
    Barbara D

    Reply

  • Don@AffiliateWatcher — June 26th, 2007, 9:55 pm

    What a great concept. However, I don’t see it ever becoming the norm for most people, especially here in the States. We’re geared to work longer and harder so we can have more “stuff”. But kudos to those who can pull it off.

    Credit? Oh boy, Credit is sooooo…how shall I say it…90′s? Cash is still King, especially outside the U.S.

    Besides, the average American is buried to the eyebrows in credit card debt, do you really think it’s wise for them to be carrying around more?

    Don

    Reply

  • Trekstaaf — June 28th, 2007, 9:48 am

    Trekstaaf…

    I realy enjoyed reading your blog, i needed some info on this subject for my new study economimy in the USA and your post helped me out a lot thank you for that …

  • Christoph — June 29th, 2007, 7:50 am

    Wow. After I tore my wallet apart for any real value, I found that I can get by with just 3 pieces of plastic. My DL, debit card, and a high limit CC. I can’t believe how much excess paper I had weighing it down!! It’s all well and good, but my CC is maxed on school loans :(

    I need to get my crap in order and get my muse moving. It’s only been a friggin month!!!!!

    Reply

  • Bill Howard — July 4th, 2007, 6:15 pm

    I spend 4 hours per week dealing with broken promises made by vendors.

    One such vendor is Tim Ferriss who promised various “bonuses.”
    I have tried every imaginable way to obtain them. Then, I contacted Tim’s support people. I have received emails, etc. suggesting how to get them (none work.) Over 1 month ago I was told his web and technical people would check into this problem.
    As a result of bad vendor selection, I spend 4 hours per week trying to get vendors to deliver on promises. If I provided equally lousy service, I could save many hours. Of course, I would quickly have NO CLIENTS OR CUSTOMERS.
    Cheers

    Reply

  • Bill Howard — July 4th, 2007, 6:16 pm

    If your moderator does not post my comment, I will post it on several sites that discuss fraud

    Thanks

    Reply

  • alex — July 5th, 2007, 1:05 am

    Bill, what bonuses are you trying and failing to obtain?

    Reply

  • Tim Ferriss — July 5th, 2007, 4:53 am

    Dear Bill,

    I’m really sorry to hear that you’ve had some trouble. Are you referring to the reader-only section on http://www.fourhourworkweek.com? We’ve worked really hard — there is a team of four or so who work on the site — to add even more extras than are listed in the book. We are really proud to have less than a 1% inquiry rate from those who attempt to register, but sometimes things do pop up, like glitches related to Firefox 2, spam filters for Earthlink/AOL, etc. We also sometimes take down a bonus to add to it or make improvements. More are on the way.

    I apologize if you ran into problems and promise that my tech team is really doing their best. They respond to at least 98% of our tech-related e-mails in 18 hours or so, and we’ve made repeated improvements to the registration area based on user feedback.

    In all cases, I can’t stop you from putting us on fraud sites, but I’d ask you not to, as there is no fraud here. Please take a second to give it another shot at http://fourhourworkweek.com/wms/login/login.php and email Steve at guru@fourhourworkweek.com if you still have problems. We’re really doing our best. Alex and others may also be able to help.

    Cheers,

    Tim

    Reply

  • Your Life. Organized. — July 6th, 2007, 7:52 am

    Less Is More — Do You Agree?…

    Christmas Boy loves new books and he just picked up The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Ferriss is a 29-year old wonder boy who’s managed to create a deafening buzz in the marketplace with…

  • Jeff — July 6th, 2007, 11:49 am

    This is GREAT! I was so excited about GrandCentral, then found out that at present time it is invitation only. If anyone has a GrandCentral invitation they would be willing to give me, I would be forever grateful!!

    Reply

  • Warning: Major Productivity Ahead — July 10th, 2007, 1:25 am

    [...] sometime in the month ahead I’m streamlining most of my day to day tasks. No more mail. No more opening mail. I’m outsourcing all my [...]

  • Jason — July 12th, 2007, 12:15 am

    Hi Tim, you are amazingly awesome!!! Thanks for making this book so incredible. I just could gush about you all day long, but I won’t, because I want to address the LifeLock haters:

    The articles trash the founder, not the service! What’s your freakin’ problem? The guy left, what more do you want? LifeLock is a great service, and I highly recommend it. Since using it, I get almost no junk mail, and I have verified it’s tough as nails to get credit in my name without my permission. Those articles didn’t have one bad thing to say about lifelock except: “They charge you for something you can do yourself.” WTF! I can cook for myself, but I often eat at restaurants… I can change the oil in my car, but it’s a lot easier to have walmart do it for me. Stop moaning and get a life.

    Reply

  • Sarah D — July 12th, 2007, 7:53 pm

    Some good tips, but “tolerating life’s annoyances?”? Don’t many of these basically amount to avoiding human contact e.g. no more voicemail, answering phone, returning calls, etc?!

    Reply

  • Rob — July 14th, 2007, 4:21 pm

    Hey Tim -

    Just wanted to say thanks for writing the 4HWW.

    All my life I dreamed of being a Park Ranger. I graduated with a degree in parks and recreation management and was promptly hired by the National Park Service. Lots of really cool experiences and great friends. But after 10 years, I just couldn’t take the bureaucracy, red tape and utter nonsense.

    So I quit my job and have since started four different businesses. Now I find myself a slave to email and voicemail. I came across your book at just the right time. Thanks, its really made a difference.

    Shortly after reading 4HWW, I came across this quote that reinforced the message of your book:

    “In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.” ~ Plato

    Keep up the great work!

    Rob

    http://www.rangercareers.com

    Reply

  • M Savage — July 15th, 2007, 6:44 am

    How would all of this work in professions where confidentiality is requied, i.e., accounting? law?

    M Savage

    Reply

  • How to Create a Paperless Life by Tim Ferris — July 16th, 2007, 7:34 am

    [...] When I hopped on this morning I saw an article entitled “How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another…. [...]

  • H Korngold — July 22nd, 2007, 3:45 pm

    Hey Tim — another HUGE thanks for writing the 4HWW. I have a new business that has absolutely exploded in the last 3 years and there is no sign of things slowing down. With this exponential growth has come way too many inbound messages.

    I have an email box with thousands of messages (and that is with the spam removed). It causes me great stress and anxiety that I don’t have the time to go through it all. So, I have decided to outsource to a VA to clean it all up and delete 90% of it.

    I liken me taking on that project myself to cleaning out my basement filled with 30 years of “stuff”. I would not be able to simply clean the garage, I would have to stop and reminisce over every trophy or photo of a long lost friend. Now granted, my email box is not a sentimental thing however I know that if I don’t see what is there, I won’t be torn or agonize over it — out of sight, out of mind. Bottom line, if it was important, I would have dealt with it already, right?

    Thanks again for helping me keep the main thing the main thing!

    H Korngold

    Reply

  • Andrew — July 23rd, 2007, 6:50 pm

    Here’s an interesting article published in Businessweek about email and other distractions in the workplace. It ties in perfectly with Tim’s chapter on Ellimination:

    http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jul2007/ca20070719_880333.htm

    Reply

  • Big Dreams — July 25th, 2007, 12:32 pm

    I like cash, but would prefer we return to the gold standard. Paper money is going too far!

    Reply

  • Alex — July 25th, 2007, 1:29 pm

    FYI, Earth Class Mail just started a refer-a-friend promo, so you and I can both get a free month if you use coupon code “earth#40486″. I signed up for ECM right after reading Tim’s post, and it’s really seamless; works exactly as advertised. The biggest benefit for me is cutting down on the paper mail laying around and the time I used to spend scanning and archiving statements/bills/forms/etc.

    I do wish there was a way to have them scan your letter mail automatically as soon as it arrives, instead of you having to hit “scan” and then waiting 24 hours — Yes, it really does take a full day for them to scan it, even if you hit “scan” as soon as the mailpiece arrives at 10AM. I do suspect that as they get more customers, they’ll improve on scanning turnaround.

    Secret tip: Oregon has no sales tax, and ECM will happily sign for and forward packages for you. Great if you live in California and want to order something expensive from the Apple Store. >:D

    The refer-a-friend email also mentioned that they’re increasing their rates soon, and that old customers will be grandfathered at the old rates.

    Reply

  • Identity Theft and Prevention — July 25th, 2007, 5:58 pm

    [...] services. I was pointed in their direction by my friend Tim Ferriss, after he posted about creating a paperless life. I investigated various other credit protection companies, and for the price and the quality of [...]

  • Rachel Miller — July 26th, 2007, 10:27 am

    Sorry to say, I don’t think much of this system. There are plenty of smaller businesses left in this country that do not accept cash. What are you going to do if you want to stop at a farmer’s market or a fresh produce stand?

    And as far as sending all voicemail calls to e-mail, I would find that obnoxious. If you need to have a conversation with lots of questions and answers with someone, you’d have to keep sending e-mails back and forth, probably spending way more time than the quick time spent on the phone. Talking is faster than typing.

    Reply

  • Adam Beguelin — July 26th, 2007, 11:01 am

    Love the book, by the way. Just finished it last weekend.

    Another great alternative for a free phone is AIM Phoneline. I just signed up for one myself, one public and one private. It’s like Skype or Vonage except it’s a real phone number for free. Check out my blog entry for more details.

    http://hackerclass.blogspot.com/2007/07/call-me-636-590-3578.html

    Reply

  • outsourcedlife.org » Blog Archive » Let’s start things off! — July 26th, 2007, 4:01 pm

    [...] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… [...]

  • Sean Oliver — July 28th, 2007, 6:50 pm

    I use callwave. It is free and does a job almost as good as simulscribe.

    Reply

  • Joy — August 1st, 2007, 12:45 am

    Today, I subscribed to Jot.com (which is currently free) and 30boxes.com.(a calendar site I am trying out and hoping to coordinate with Jott.com). Jott.com is similar to pinger.com and Simulscribe.

    I’m half-way through your book. I agree with one reviewer (NY Times?), it is STUNNING. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us!

    Reply

  • Go Paperless and Communication-Free Now (You’ll Have to Anyway While Abroad) — August 2nd, 2007, 2:50 pm

    [...] of his recent posts (okay, it’s about six weeks old) entitled How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… deals with simplifying all of your communication and transactional overhead (how’s that for [...]

  • links for 2007-08-02 : Christopher Schmitt — August 2nd, 2007, 3:27 pm

    [...] Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another Phone Call… (tags: blog business career email gtd inbox jobs life lifehacker lifehacks list organization paper phone productivity software work writing mail lifehack) [...]

  • Sally — August 2nd, 2007, 4:58 pm

    Tim, you rock. Ex-corporate slave here. I’m totally paperless, email-free, voicemail-free, and work from home. But then, I’m an independent contractor for a phonesex and/or psychic line, so every call I receive makes me money (which goes directly into my bank account, which I keep for online bill-paying. I’ll be using your ideas to maximize online cashflow and plan to travel a month at a time (every other month) with a laptop and access to a phone.) The older I get, the LESS stuff I want or need (think George Carlin and his riff on “stuff”).

    Reply

  • Sally — August 2nd, 2007, 5:20 pm

    What’s the best, cheapest, and most reliable GSM for international travel? Anybody know anything about the new KTF from Korea? http://www.gsmworld.com/index.shtml

    Reply

  • Julie — August 6th, 2007, 8:32 am

    This is by far one of my favorite posts of yours. I gave my readers a heads up on this article. Your blog continues to amaze me Tim.

    My husband and I are eating up your new book. We just finished up 9 years in the Air Force last week and are entering the new world of entreprenuers. Your book could not have come out at a more perfect time than this. Thank you. :)

    Reply

  • How To Preserve Your State of Mind | MonkAtWork.com — August 6th, 2007, 9:07 am

    [...] Turn off the phone/email/blackberry/bluetooth/RSS reader/etc. [...]

  • Jess — August 7th, 2007, 7:37 pm

    I’m a bit late to post. I love the new book, and just let my mom borrow it!

    A question about credit cards, though. My CC company of 7 years just sent me something telling me they’re going to flip my 9.9% fixed to a ~19.9% variable, due to “rising interest rates.” As a result, I’m looking for a new, lower-interest or at least something with a good rewards program.

    You say you’ve got a MasterCard, do you have any particular CC company that it’s with? Or any particular reason for going MC over Visa or the like?

    Reply

  • Elizabeth — August 9th, 2007, 10:57 pm

    Did you know that you can simply call your credit card company, and ask them to reduce or actually REMOVE your interest charges, and most of the time they will? I’ve tried it and it worked. You simply say, look, I have a stack of opportunities right here to get a new credit card and NO interest (for some finite period of time like 6 – 12 months). Please can you remove my interest charges, or I will close the account I have with you and change to this other company. In my case when I said that, they said they couldn’t do that because I’d already had 9 months with zero interest (true), but they’d pass me to their supervisor, who looked at my payment history which was perfect, and lowered my rate from an already comparatively low 12.9% to 9.5% from now on. You’d be amazed. Try it! They don’t want to lose you and will often reduce (permanently) or entirely remove your interest charges for a set period of time. What’s the harm in asking? It works!

    Reply

  • The 4-Hour Work Week?! » davidmickelson.com — August 12th, 2007, 5:23 pm

    [...] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… [...]

  • Open Access Marketing — August 13th, 2007, 3:07 pm

    My name is Paul and I am the President of Open Access Marketing. We are an American company with operations in the Philippines that helps individuals and companies with their staffing needs.

    With the success of Tim Ferriss’ book, we’ve now successfully placed several of our virtual assistants with individuals and company executives in the U.S.

    I highly encourage you to contact me at paul@openaccessmarketing.com if you have any questions about getting your first virtual assistant, The Philippines, and why it is better to work with a company directly rather than an individual contractor overseas.

    Cheers!

    Reply

    • Ryan Owen — December 15th, 2010, 8:30 pm

      Funny to see Paul’s post on here, as I have had the pleasure of meeting him in Manila. Our company has used Open Access Marketing for the last 9 months and have been very happy with them. Thus I thought I’d throw that endorsement here in case anyone is considering getting in touch with Paul.

      Reply

  • Russ — August 14th, 2007, 12:15 pm

    Another service to help with automation and outsourcing is PayTrust (www.paytrust.com)

    It’s a full featured web bill pay service and has some bells and whistles that your typical bank sponsored service doesn’t have.

    PayTrust is owned by Intuit, makers of Quicken, etc.

    It is not a free service and while I haven’t used it personally, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

    Although, with services like Earth Class Mail, PayTrust might be a bit redundant or even unnecessary.

    Cheers.

    Reply

  • ejoe — August 15th, 2007, 1:29 pm

    hey tim, just started your book

    http://www.entrepreneurjoe.com/2007/08/15/the-4-hour-work-week-part-1/

    So far, its great, cant wait to finish it and implement your concepts.

    -ejoe

    Reply

  • Russ — August 15th, 2007, 5:51 pm

    If you’re looking for an invite to sign up for GrandCentral, you might want to check out InviteShare.com

    Here’s their GrandCentral page: http://www.inviteshare.com/site.php?id=17

    You can sign up for an invite and existing users can share their invites with the community.

    Cheers

    Reply

  • Alexis — August 17th, 2007, 8:55 am

    The book is great and this post is right on.

    I decided to go paperless when I constantly had to be reimbursed for trips and other materials for the office. For years I have eaten up expenses that should have been paid for by someone else. Everything that I have to buy on my own I will do it online so I can just put the receipt through http://www.shoeboxed.com.

    I think another important thing to mention is that the South of the United States produces a lot of paper products and it’s really responsible to diminish our impact on Southern forests. A good resource on information about that is http://www.dogwoodalliance.org

    Reply

  • Michael A — August 18th, 2007, 4:51 am

    Hello everyone,

    I hope you’re all as successful as Mr. Timothy Ferriss. Otherwise, keep your immature, self-obsessing opinions to your self. To Mr. Latin America, what a triviality. Picking on the details. A sure sign we are dealing with a big noter with low confidence.

    Thanks to everyone for commenting – especially Mr Latin. Ignorance is always unkown to the carrier.

    Sincerely,

    Michael Alexander

    Reply

  • Kim — August 22nd, 2007, 8:14 am

    The less paper, the better! Save the trees. I rarely carry cash. A credit card is so much easier to manager. I’ll have to try out your voicemail techniques. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  • Jeff Consiglio — August 27th, 2007, 7:51 am

    I’m curious about your choice to enable comments on your blog. Seems contradictory to your overall premise of avoiding info overload? I’m not being facetious, but am genuinely curious.

    Doesn’t that put you in reactive mode – having to answer comments all the time, and weed out spammers?

    ###

    Hi J,

    The comments serve to make the blog a dialogue, and as it reaches a critical mass, people begin to help each other, much like the forums. I also get some great advice and recommendations from my readers. Akismet handles almost all spam, and I just delete idiots. I check out comments no more than once a day, and it doesn’t take more than 15 minutes or so. If it gets to be a burden, I’ll 1) outsource it to my assistants, then 2) eliminate comments if I have to. I’m enjoying so far, though.

    Thanks for the question!

    Tim

    Reply

  • Dymersion » Blog Archive » A Paperless Life, Maybe. But Voicemailess, Calless, and Cashless, too? — August 30th, 2007, 1:32 am

    [...] Tim Ferriss, on his blog, tries to explain how any of us can live our lives without paper, voicemail, answering calls, or using cash.  Now, I try to live my life as [...]

  • Michael — August 31st, 2007, 12:10 pm

    Looking for the best software to manage approvals processes for creative work (visual ads, TV storyboards, writings) between at least 3 people / groups in different locations (me being, preferably, in a loft in Berlin).

    Reply

  • Alexa — September 5th, 2007, 7:46 am

    I have a question for all of you experienced 4-hourers out there: As a recent college graduate, I am trying to reduce or completely eliminate the whole office-job cycle before it starts, but how do I do this without getting sucked into a meaningless entry-level job? I do need some income other than a potential start-up.

    My advantages include not having a house or children, and possessions that can be condensed into a suitcase.

    Any advise you might have would be wonderful!

    Thank you,

    Alexa

    Reply

  • 4 Eva Young - Success : Motivation: Personal Growth — September 7th, 2007, 11:04 am

    [...] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… [...]

  • Nick — September 10th, 2007, 6:50 am

    Love the book. So for Tim and anyone else that wants to answer, what are your 4hourworkweek strategies for getting through college with a decent GPA and a life?

    Reply

  • Simon Thomas — September 10th, 2007, 9:43 pm

    Hey Tim and others,

    Great tips. I’ve been using RemoteControlMail (now called EarthClassMail) and GrandCentral for a while. For voicemail transcription, I used to use a service called DictoMail (http://www.dictomail.com/).

    For paying bills, I’ve started trying PayTrust http://paytrust.com/

    My problem recently has been having to deposit the affiliate checks (when they don’t deposit directly into my bank account or paypal account). Unless you have a better idea, I’m going to try out a scan checking service called DepositNow (https://www.depositnow.com) which a number of banks also offer as a service.

    -Simon

    Reply

  • mike — September 10th, 2007, 11:05 pm

    not every thing can be applied to the book in college, becuase college isnt like real life if you pay attention to the book. But there are alot of thigns that can be applied. group projects can easily be applied to his suggestions on meetings. dont meet with your group to define the problem, the teacher has likely defined it allready. Have people come up with ideas on their own and email them to you and email back. rank how important getting a project needs to get done based on when its due, and force your self to get them done earlier by giving your self earlier, seemingly impossible deadline than the teacher dose. As the book says, it will force you to get it done with more focus.

    The low information diet is another great way. while it may sound crazy, you dont need face book or myspace to get through college. reduce how offtend you check it, and let your friends know to contact you through your phone, screen the calls and check your voicemail after and quickly decided if its urgent to respond to or if it can wait till later. Finish projects first befor checking e-mail or voicemail and so on, check FB/MySpace less offtend. If something big is going on, people will be talking about it or ask you about it. If you get your stuff out of the way befor attending to distractions, you wont miss any thing any way.

    the thing the earlier part of the book emphisizes the most is focusing on the important and getting it done.It is much faster than letting distractions get in the way. transitioning between tasks adds large ammount of time, so focus is key.

    getting out of class is probly not the best idea becuase some profs will factor it into your grade, something you cant do much about, and can mean the differance between a B and an A- when its close. also, i like his idea of makeing the proffessor think twice befor giveing you a lower grade, if you read the book, you’ll know what im talking about.

    PLAN YOUR DAY OUT THE DAY BEFORE. plan plan plan. figure out what you need to get done the next day to fell like you got what you needed done, then get it done FIRST. You then have the rest of the day to enjoy what ever, but get the major stuff out of the way with all your focus.

    any ways hope that helps. I’m a college student as well, and I’m curently reading this book as well. I know its not going to be easy for me to adjust to all these things at first, but i will benifit from it as well. One thing i know is that i want to find a way to apply my education in IT-network and security, to starting my own buissness, and automateing it, rather than just becomeing a Admin for a company and being on call 24/7.

    Reply

  • Francis Wade — September 28th, 2007, 4:26 pm

    I think these tips are great if one is living in a Developed Country, but as anyone who travels in the rest of the world knows, it’s just not possible.

    But, I think that the principle behind the tips are powerful, and can be used anywhere:
    – cut out as much paper as possible (but making sure to create backups)
    – centralize capture points

    I think these are useful tips, but there is a larger basic structure behind them that can be understood for these, and all time management “tips.” When that structure is understood, and the basic elements well-practiced, only then do tips make sense, and can be implemented by us individuals at our own skill-levels.

    For example, I have no access to Pinger, but I suspect that there is a principle behind its use that I could use without having it. Also, I might very well able to apply the principle to a basic element, making me productive wherever I travel in the world.

    Reply

  • The Killer iPhone App « Bitstream — October 3rd, 2007, 1:03 pm

    [...] Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek as well as the companion blog and I noticed on there a post about having everything going into your email. I think this is an excellent idea. I vastly prefer email to voice mail or phone [...]

  • TimW — October 8th, 2007, 11:30 am

    I must admit when I first heard about the book I was skeptical. After reading it, much of what Tim says makes sense. What I find amusing, though, are the folks that poo-poo the whole idea as completely unworkable.

    I wonder if it ever occurred to them to implement those things which would work, and ignore that which will not. For example, I run an internet retail business, but am very small and have erratic inventory and cash-flow, as well as not netting a whole lot to begin with.

    To attempt to use a fulfillment service for all the products I stock (several hundred SKUs, easily) would be a nightmare, I think. However, that’s not going to stop me from investigating the idea, just in case.

    However, the suggestions regarding email, not looking at websites, and doing other things that interrupt the work-flow were goldmines of information. While my business is web-based, there are many non-web things I can be doing to increase business.

    Or, I could be visiting relevant websites instead of hovering over, and responding to, email as it comes in, as well as working to promote my new entrepreneur’s discussion forum.

    Since I just finished reading the book this past weekend, I will be implementing different steps to help improve efficiency. We’ll see how it goes.

    Thanks, Tim!

    TimW
    Phoenix

    Reply

  • MP Singh — October 23rd, 2007, 3:35 am

    Here in India (I work for a US company), the knowledge workers like me work thus: Business mostly via email, and the rest via mobile phone (SMS and voice). It is therefore important to have your own “email policy” and a “mobile phone policy”. It is normally not-the-done-thing to bar certain email addresses and mobile numbers from communicating with you. So, you must process ALL of these. My email policy: I spend about 10 minutes every morning to delete yesterday’s unwanted mails. My target is to delete ALL mails from my Inbox and preserve only the relevant mails in the “Sent Mails” folder. On an average, I preserve around 10 mails a day. I also celebrate “let us delete mails day” once every 6 months and target to exterminate as many as I can.

    About mobile, I store “names” of those people with who I would like to talk. Rest of the calls meet with “no answer” or “busy” fate. Of course, I will take these calls if they persisted and called repeatedly.

    Voice mail is seldom used.

    Also, our wallets do have coin pockets. You can buy a cup of tea for around 8 cents. In fact, India has a very rich culture of street food. These guys and almost all sweetmeat shops do not accept credit cards. They prefer the old school. Coins are handy in this part of the knowledge workers’ universe!

    Reply

  • 110+ Resources For Creative Minds — October 24th, 2007, 12:05 pm

    [...] Timothy Ferriss on Doing The Impossible “The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossibleâ€? is asking the right question: [...]

  • Niet nuttig, of wel? » Blog Archive » anti-een-niet-creatieve-bui — October 26th, 2007, 1:28 am

    [...] Timothy Ferriss on Doing The Impossible “The key to finding means to accomplish the “impossible� is asking the right question: “How [...]

  • cleverashly — November 13th, 2007, 1:04 am

    I’m not very good at online dating. I’m trying to find a way to ask you on a date and have you say, “yes.” Do you have any advice?

    Reply

  • Tomaliste — November 24th, 2007, 2:41 pm

    This post is dead-on. Thanks for writing the resourceful book Tim!

    I would have piles of mail in my room waiting to be shredded, but I didn’t want to take the time to do it. Eventually I would end up shredding it all at one time (batch processing), but it would take over an hour to sort out all the junk and shred everything. So I attacked the root cause and I went with http://www.tidymailbox.com to get rid of most of my junk mail. I also went paperless with most of my bills.

    Reply

  • Creating a Paperless Life — December 4th, 2007, 12:58 pm

    [...] One of my favorite blog posts of his is: “How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another…. [...]

  • 12 Filtering Tips for Better Information in Half the Time | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss — December 28th, 2007, 12:01 pm

    [...] resources: Download Google RSS Reader Subscribe to this blog’s RSS Feed How to Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail, Never Return Another Phone Call How to Take Notes Like an Alpha-Geek The 10 Most Common Words You Should Stop Using [...]

  • Brick Andrews — January 8th, 2008, 5:39 am

    Another interesting resource is Sandy. Sandy is what you might call a “virtual virtual assistant”. Sandy can manage appointments, and remind you of them and other scheduled tasks just when you need to know. She can keep track of all kinds of things you need to remember like contacts, books you want to read, birthdays, bookmarks, people to call and things to do. She can keep track of any notes you want to make, and in general she will help keep you organized. No more sticky notes or pads of paper to keep track of all those to-do’s, ideas and thoughts. She can be accessed via email, mobile and IM. Link her to Jott and you can call her! Extremely useful. For a little more on Sandy, you can read my post on here here.

    Reply

  • Tim Weaver — January 8th, 2008, 2:18 pm

    If you can access it from a Blackberry or other web-enabled PDA, why would you need “Sandy”? Isn’t that what a PDA is supposed to do?

    Reply

  • Brick Andrews — January 9th, 2008, 1:56 pm

    Using say Outlook and your PDA to keep track of notes, contacts appointments, etc. requires you to constantly synch them. A good alternative would be to use GMail/Google Apps which would then give access from any online device (e.g. PC and Blackberry) and adds some SMS support which is useful if you only have a cell phone handy. But all of these requires that you enter and organize these.

    Sandy is really meant to be a virtual personal assistant. You just tell here in natural language what you need kept track of or what you need looked up, and she does the organizing and retrieval. The idea is that she is a little more like a secretary than a PDA or Outlook (or whatever is your PIM tools of choice). Best of all, you can access your “secretary” from email, sms, PDA, IM and even by telephone (via Jott). How do you make a note of an idea or set a reminder when all you have is a plain old telephone handy, or you are driving and cannot enter stuff on your PDA? I hope that helps explain the difference. In a way, you have to try it out to fully appreciate the service! I hope this helps!!!

    Reply

  • 10 Steps to Become an Email Ninja | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss — January 9th, 2008, 8:01 pm

    [...] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… [...]

  • Colin @ GotVoice — January 10th, 2008, 3:15 pm

    Hey Tim, this is great! I also invite you to check out GotVoice. Similar to Spinvox and SimulScribe, but GotVoice can retrieve your cell, home and work phone voicemail and send them to you as text in SMS and email.

    Also, not sure if you saw about Om Malik’s heart attack (GigaOm.com), but he thanks GotVoice for simplifying all of his phones and voicemails, and being able to rapidly read through his hundreds of iPhone, VoIP and landline voicemails he received after his heart attack in only 50 minutes:

    http://gigaom.com/2008/01/08/checking-in-with-gigaom-readers-an-update/

    “I also want to thank a service called GotVoice. It is sort of like Yahoo for voicemail — a nifty web-based voicemail management system. I had signed up for it before the holidays to “review” the service. It worked with my iPhone, my AT&T line and my softphone VoIP service. It pulled the voicemails from the various systems and put them in the order received. More importantly, it sent me a transcript of the voicemails in the email inbox. In less that 50 minutes I read your sentiments.”

    Reply

  • The Newly Rich » Blog Archive » Tricks with Grand Central (Modern Phone part 1/3) — January 21st, 2008, 9:09 am

    [...] site, I’ve been playing with several phone technologies during the past 6 months (inspired by this post from Tim I’ll be sharing my experiences, starting with Grand [...]

  • The Holy Grail: How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss — January 21st, 2008, 9:55 pm

    [...] How to Do The Impossible: Create a Paperless Life, Never Check Voicemail Again, Never Return Another… E-mail-Free Fridays and How to Save Your Weekend [...]

  • The Castle Steps Hotel, Prague — January 23rd, 2008, 2:24 pm

    In the office we use an add-on for Outlook called Cloudmark. We can’t use a spam filter, because we get initial enquiries from clients which could come in various forms, and which we can’t risk losing.

    Cloudmark connects millions of users to a central database. Users identify spam, and this information is passed to the database. Users receive constant updates, so the program knows which emails other people have identified as spam. Because it doesn’t use a filter there is little risk of losing real emails. The program works in the background and deletes spam almost instantly.

    Reply

  • The Best (and Worst?) Autoresponders of 2007 | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss — February 21st, 2008, 6:42 pm

    [...] Love it and some hate it, reflecting or deleting e-mail can be an art form. [...]

  • mamelouk — February 22nd, 2008, 3:37 am

    Nice tips, but only applicable to US (for example, grandCentral is not available in france or japan)

    Reply

  • Philip Ferris — February 25th, 2008, 8:53 am

    Tim, I can’t recall seeing Earth Class Mail ( http://www.earthclassmail.com/ ) mentioned on you site before, as a way to get rid of handling paper it seems like a good one.

    I came across the reference to Earth Class mail in this post: http://blogs.computerworld.com/how_to_work_from_the_beach

    Cheers and thanks for what you do.

    Phil

    Reply

  • Philip Ferris — February 25th, 2008, 8:58 am

    Rats! The mention is in this actual post – just tagged Remote Mail on the link rather than Earth Class mail.

    Scratch my last comment.

    (How emabrassing).

    Reply

  • Sully — March 5th, 2008, 10:37 am

    I live in Canada, and, mens wallets here have a place for change.

    Also, I have to say, this would not work for us Canucks because Tim Hortans does NOT take debt or credit card, cash only. I NEED MY TIMMYS SO it’s not possible.

    Reply

  • Outside Influences « Hoehn’s Musings — July 8th, 2008, 4:55 pm

    [...] want to present like Steve Jobs.  I want to live like Tim Ferriss.  I want to talk like Larry David.  I want to have honest, moving work like Ricky Gervais.  I [...]

  • Josh C. — July 31st, 2008, 8:31 am

    Can anyone please get/send me an invite to Grand Central Station as it is in Private Beta. It would be greatly appriciated and I will say a toast to you when I do my next wine tasting. My email: maven@mavenwines.com

    Reply

  • Digital Life Artist — August 19th, 2008, 6:44 pm

    Paperless is the way into the future, and the way to facilitate the 4-hour work week. The “Paperless Joy” book by George Dimopoulos is taking a fresh look at paperlessness and how it can transform our lives and world.

    Reply

  • Anna Ostrowska — October 30th, 2008, 8:02 am

    Hi TIM!
    Can you help please…?
    I’m reading your book at the moment, I’m somewhere in the middle. It’s realy good, one of the best ones I’ve ever read! Website’s great too, almost made me cry when I first I look through it, hehe
    I understand it all very well, and totally agree with most of the things you write about, but I’m in a very difficult position at the moment, and don’t know how to break out of it.
    I’ve been dreaming of having my own business for a while, as soon as possible; I have a whole plan in place, but I need more cash. Now, multiplying my income seems to me almost impossible, since I only work in administration, stuck in this bloody office from 9-5 :( . I started looking for a new job, something where I could be rewarded on my performance, rather then time I’ve spent at work, but it’s just not easy, and I’m getting very frustrated.
    Do you have any suggestions? Or anyone really… I know Tim’s not replying to all posts.
    Cheers! :D

    Reply

  • Tackling Three Key Issues In Balancing Work And Life « New Rules of Investing — November 18th, 2008, 2:58 am

    [...] to check multiple sources of contact have been addressed by people like Tim Ferris in his post “How to do the impossible“. GTD theory and practice help fill-in the much needed issue of managing communication but for [...]

  • NOPROBO » My Paper-Less Life: Finding Liberation and Control — January 21st, 2009, 9:34 am

    [...] Ferriss’ How to Do The Impossible: Useful and practical solutions for a wide range of automation and reduction [...]

  • John Joyce — January 29th, 2009, 11:13 am

    If you want to get rid of your paper documents and manage them online with your electronic documents, please try our service. You can send your paper documents to us via pre-paid envelopes or boxes and we’ll scan them into your secure online account. (and securely shred your originals)

    You can also self-scan and upload to your account, upload your electronic documents, email documents to your account. Now, you can search, share and download ALL of your documents from one central location.

    Reply

  • David — June 14th, 2009, 5:23 pm

    For those of you who dislike cash, US Attorneys love people like you. You are an open book of information to troll through.

    Having once had my full financial life laid bare before the government, I took a dramatic U-turn and now almost always use cash. It’s anonymous. Identity theft is more difficult. And best of all, it will be incredibly frustrating for any government bureaucrat that might want to ever look over my finances.

    Reply

  • Patrick Duncan — June 24th, 2009, 2:41 am

    I’m surprised that you’re advocating cutting out using cash for using cards to pay for things. I find that it takes twice or three times as long to pay with a card than it does with cash. My rules are to have cash for daily items, cards for items when you don’t carry that much cash on you. The other benefit of cash is that I can see what I have left until my next weekly cash withdrawl.

    Reply

  • Michael — July 24th, 2009, 11:50 pm

    People cost the most nowadays, we need more robots. Anyone got a good code to run one?

    Reply

  • Caleb — August 26th, 2009, 11:27 am

    Speaking of cutting paper….

    You can now set up a virtual LLC or S-Corp in Vermont!

    It’s kind of a big deal.

    Reply

  • Sebastian — September 3rd, 2009, 2:15 am

    Nice practical article, Tim.
    About checks, it’s even easier for me not to use them. In Belgium, we don’t use it from 01/01/2002… :-)

    Reply

  • Logo Outsourcer — September 9th, 2009, 10:39 am

    FYI, I live in rural USA, and you can’t survive on only credit here either. Many places simply don’t accept credit cards. This might have to do with the fact that in rural areas there is more poverty and more cash employment (either cash payroll or off-the-books work). So don’t travel the US assuming universal credit card access. You can probably find any service in any area, but in some places you’ll have to try two or three locations before you find one that takes credit (depending on your needs).

    Reply

  • Megan Donovan — October 17th, 2009, 4:26 am

    Excellent tips Tim. I have started to get rid of paper and the mail problem a year ago. But I won’t use credit cards if I can pay cash. I really like to pay via cash, because it’s faster, I can get a lot more discounts and I stay anonymous. I really don’t like it, when it’s transparent what brands I buy, what time I go shopping, how much I spent on certain products etc.

    Reply

  • Oleg Mokhov — October 23rd, 2009, 11:05 am

    Hey Tim,

    Going paperless and voicemail-less not only saves time and energy, it’s the responsible thing to do.

    We save trees by going paperless. I know that sounds cliche and cheesy, but it’s really true. Unless you really need a physical copy of something (rarely), not printing it out means you don’t need to buy as much (if any) paper. If enough people do that, then the manufacturer cuts down less trees.

    By not needing to deal with paper and long voicemails (we can read way faster than reading, after all), we save time and energy. We can process and take action on digital text and images MUCH faster, freeing up resources to do more or other things.

    What’s interesting is that every year, this whole paper-less/voicemail-less work flow is becoming standard. More and more technology released to let us do that. Better times for us all :)

    Here’s to a continued effective workflow and increased time and energy to be able to do more of what we love,
    Oleg

    Reply

  • Dennis Stenhill — November 11th, 2009, 2:06 am

    I use http://www.usamail1.com and I’m very happy with their service. Their site is easy to navigate, and their customer service has always been very helpful

    Reply

  • Janet B — December 16th, 2009, 11:29 am

    Hi Tim. It looks like some of your organizational and filing needs could be solved with the use of some clever software! There are a lot of options for filing software. We do document management and filing for a living with a clever twist. The Paper Tiger Filing System is a proven tool and we are ready to you in any way we can do to meet your filing system needs.

    Reply

  • Clinton — January 26th, 2010, 2:33 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Read your book this past year and have followed the blog ever since. Wanted to see if you had any thoughts how the FHWW could simplify the life of a college and soon to be law student?

    Reply

  • Chris Knight — January 27th, 2010, 11:48 am

    HI Tim,

    Have you looked at NoMorePost.com? a paperless postal service based in London, UK.

    We started using it in our office back in October and our paper consumption has gone down by almost 50%. We started using to avoid the problems caused by the postal strikes we had here last year.

    Worth a look.

    Regards
    Chris

    Reply

  • Jassen Bowman — February 8th, 2010, 9:41 pm

    I realize that this post is a couple years old, but it’s one that I come back to a few times a year. I’ve successfully integrated several of the ideas on this list into my life and my business, including the difficult ones such as ditching the telephone entirely, as much as I would like to do so.

    For my primary line of work, I negotiate payment plans, reduced settlements, and penalty relief between the IRS and small businesses. You would think this requires a tremendous amount of telephone time, and for most of my colleagues, it does. It’s a line of work that requires a fairly close relationship with clients for long periods of time, sometimes into multiple years.

    However, I’ve created systems that allow me to manage that relationship effectively, and do it on my terms. First, I only check voicemail at 10am and 2pm, and only return phone calls after the 2pm block. I do the majority of my communication with clients via fax and email, and have no qualms returning a voicemail via email.

    On the IRS side, there is almost nothing I can’t do via fax or FedEx, and it is often preferred by the agency, since it creates a paper trail, and there is usually a form for it anyway.

    Since I carry a smaller client load than most of my cohorts, I am also able to complete the majority of my weekly actual tax work in only two days, Tuesday and Thursday. This allows me to devote most of the rest of the week to marketing and systems development, and only occasional emergency communication with clients or the IRS. This time devoted to marketing and systems development has lead to vast efficiency improvements in our business.

    I have been resisting using Earth Class Mail, but I am almost convinced to use them for my incoming IRS mail, since there is such a huge volume of it every day. I do use Google Voice as my primary phone number, but find their transcription service lacking, so cannot rely on it. I hardly ever carry my cell phone, and am actually thinking of just straight up getting rid of it and only having some sort of pre-paid thing to keep in the truck for emergencies.

    -Jassen

    Reply

  • Russell — March 8th, 2010, 11:34 am

    We used ringcentral based on a recommendation in these comments and canceled after 30 days due to HORRIBLE customer service. Even after we canceled before the trail period was up the credit card charges remained and we had to call back a few weeks later to make sure they canceled them. The Indians we got on the phone we excessively nice but couldn’t solve basic problems or answer simple questions. We requested a number port, then had it canceled, then realized it hadn’t actually been canceled when our current provider called us to ask why we were switching services. Seems like one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing there.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — March 8th, 2010, 3:40 pm

      Hi Russell,

      I’m very sorry to hear this. Alas, companies with good services turn back quite quickly when they grow too quickly and sacrifice in both hiring and quality assurance.

      All the best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Anon — April 15th, 2010, 4:33 am

    I would rather make all of my purchases using my debit card. It’s easier for me to keep track of what I am spending daily, weekly, monthly, without really borrowing but as you said, some businesses don’t accept credit, even in the US. That drives me nuts since I really don’t care to carry cash. Just forces me to shop at the places that DO accept credit.

    Reply

  • Simon — April 21st, 2010, 1:40 am

    Hi There, in relation to never checking your voicemail again, I have used a system called vonage which is a voice over IP system. I found this to be very useful as rather than having to listen to voicemail on the phone, if you miss a call and dont have your normal answering phone on, then the system emails you with an attached .wav file so you can listen to the message on your computer instead.

    Reply

  • Robert Wieseneck — August 28th, 2010, 8:23 am

    Very interesting ideas. I try my best not to print anything unless absolutely necessary. I do all my bills and banking online where possible. I am not sure that I want my snail mail opened and scanned by a third party. I think that sharing files electronically would save a lot of work and headaches and paper.

    Reply

  • Russell — September 21st, 2010, 1:19 pm

    I think it’s time to revisit online postal mail management. The service mentioned in the post – Remote Control Mail – appears to no longer exist.

    A few companies have filled the void but it would be great to hear some feedback or personal experiences with each of them:
    - http://www.earthclassmail.com/
    - http://www.mailboxforwarding.com
    http://www.virtualpostmail.com

    Does anyone have any experience with these companies they could share?

    Reply

  • Jassen Bowman — September 21st, 2010, 4:49 pm

    Russell:

    In response to your comment earlier this afternoon, I’ve gone through 3 such companies, and finally landed on Virtual Post Mail. Their interface is a bit too fancy, in my opinion, but that’s just a personal preference towards web site simplicity. Other than that, their fee structure, the specials they often run, and the service itself has been outstanding for the two months I’ve been using it.

    I now run ALL of my client IRS mail through the service — I can truly have a paperless practice now. They are much cheaper than Earth Class Mail, have a secure mail sorting facility (which I require due to the nature of my practice), and they open and scan the mails I tell them too within the span of 3 or 4 hours of selecting it, which is fine for my timelines.

    ~Jassen Bowman

    Reply

  • in?aat firmalar? — October 12th, 2010, 4:03 pm

    We used ringcentral based on a recommendation in these comments and canceled after 30 days due to HORRIBLE customer service. Even after we canceled before the trail period was up the credit card charges remained and we had to call back a few weeks later to make sure they canceled them. The Indians we got on the phone we excessively nice but couldn’t solve basic problems or answer simple questions. We requested a number port, then had it canceled, then realized it hadn’t actually been canceled when our current provider called us to ask why we were switching services. Seems like one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing there

    Reply

  • alvin — October 19th, 2010, 12:09 am

    The tips are great! Its very informative. Here in our country the Philippines, companies in the urban city and areas are using this kind of system. Paperless and cashless life. Times are changing and the value of living is very high. Progressive nations like the U.S. and other first world countries are relying on the BPO or Business Process Outsourcing because it reduce the operational cost and time. Some prefer Virtual assistant or virtual secreatries to do the job like paperless, answering email and answering voice box, etc. Times are changing. Its Digital Age..

    Reply

  • Amanda — October 28th, 2010, 9:14 pm

    the remote mail link is dead. great post though! I would love to get rid of postal mail altogether. :)

    Reply

    • Jassen Bowman — October 29th, 2010, 7:55 am

      Amanda –

      I have been using Virtual Post Mail now for nearly 4 months, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It was that final piece that has allowed me to unplug and finally start to wander, but keep my “muses” going.

      And no, I don’t get paid by them for posting, they don’t even HAVE an affiliate program, but if they did, I’d still plug them for free. :)

      -Jassen

      Reply

  • scott thomas — November 22nd, 2010, 4:30 pm

    Credit card question: Really paperless?

    If one uses only credit cards to pay for everything, what about all the receipts? Between business and personal use, I’m making at least 5 purchases per day, which generates 150 receipts per month.

    Do you save all of them until the end of the month then check them off your bill (time consuming), or just toss them and assume your bill is accurate and you’re not getting overcharged??

    Thanks for any thoughts/insights on the subject!

    ST

    Reply

  • Jassen Bowman — November 22nd, 2010, 7:11 pm

    Personally, I login to online banking so frequently that I see charges as they come through. Other than that, I don’t do a real reconciliation like you should.

    If you really wanted to, take a photo of each receipt with your smart phone, and then chuck the receipt. JotNot for the iPhone is what I use for scanning and filing notes like that.

    Reply

  • Jun — December 10th, 2010, 2:27 pm

    I like the idea of companies going paperless. I can see where a few problems may arise, but for the most part I can appreciate the concept. I think more companies are going to jump on this ever growing trend.

    Reply

  • Patrick — December 23rd, 2010, 9:24 am

    I really like how you mention not answering the phone — I hate voicemail and phone calls! The idea that I am at everyone’s beck and call 24/7/365 because of my cellphone is just awful; but then it is rude not to answer.

    E-mail I can deal with more…

    Reply

  • Paul — January 27th, 2011, 10:35 am

    Hi Tim

    I read your book some time ago and have been following your site and web appearances since but had not read this post previously. There are some great points here for extending time saving opportunities and I will be trying to add some of them to those I am doing already.

    Keep up the good work!

    Paul

    Reply

  • Luda Drummond — February 11th, 2011, 9:50 am

    You are a genius!!
    And my favorite author…
    Every time that I pick up 4 Hour Week or 4 Hour Body to read, over and over again, that’s what comes out of my mouth… Genius!!
    And the funny thing is that I resisted a lot before finally giving up and reading your books… It just didn’t seem possible!
    But well… you proved me wrong!!

    Reply

  • Chris Cook — March 6th, 2011, 3:33 am

    I know its a late post, but your books are awesome mate!

    You have really changed the way I do things for the best and have recommended this to all my friends.

    See you on Twitter and Facebook.

    Chris

    Reply

  • Dwad — May 4th, 2011, 12:54 am

    Hi Tim,

    Fantastic post, and yet again some amazing tips for efficiency! However, sadly, it seems like “truly” going paperless seems impossible, although we’re all aiming for it.

    Anyhow, I just picked up the new version of 4HWW the other day, and have been reading diligently again, great new updates in it, hope to someday have the success that you have!

    Cheers,
    Dwad

    Reply

  • Matt — June 16th, 2011, 10:08 am

    I’ve been to Japan and pretty much cash is used over credit cards very regularly.

    Reply

  • Geof — June 28th, 2011, 6:51 am

    Nice article! With a baby on the way, I’m about to move my home office from a bedroom to an attic (installing skylights for this too!) but was contemplating how the additional space will inevitably lead to more clutter accumulating. Instead I should implement the suggestions here.

    Reply

  • FS — November 12th, 2011, 2:47 pm

    Similar article from Mashable, Nov. 2011:
    http://mashable.com/2011/11/11/paperless-life/

    Reply

  • Patrick — April 26th, 2012, 11:38 pm

    You are something else. Excellent blog. Have you read the new best seller 25 Laws for Doing the Impossible? You may enjoy the book.

    Reply

  • Jassen Bowman — April 27th, 2012, 9:51 am

    Still my all-time favorite Tim Ferriss article. This is probably my third or fourth comment on this one alone. Just wanted to share another piece of how I’m making it happen.

    This is for all the other commenters that have asked for help with their voicemail messages. As of two minutes ago, my Google Voice number is on “Do Not Disturb”, as I am leaving for Paris tomorrow to start a 6-month, around-the-world journey (while still running a tax consulting practice). Here is what my new voicemail message states:

    “You have reached the private voicemail box of Jassen Bowman. Please note that I am currently unable to answer telephone calls live. So that I may give you a response with my undivided attention, please leave a brief message with your name, purpose of your call, and your email address or fax number, and I will respond via email or fax with a thorough response to your inquiry. Thank you for calling, and make today your best day ever.”

    All voicemails end up in my email inbox, transcribed. The fax part is important for me, as it is how I regularly communicate with IRS personnel on behalf of my clients, more so than phone, actually.

    I hope this helps somebody out there!

    Reply

  • Paul — September 2nd, 2012, 5:59 pm

    One product that is useful for eliminating the use of paper is the Boogie Board. Basically it is a reusable eWriter. There is a version that can save what you write as well. It is made by Improv Electronics. You can find it at their site, amazon, brookstone, etc.

    Personally, I don’t see a paperless society as being a completely reachable goal. I think that paper products are still more useful in many situations. It would take generations of effort and a worldwide paradigm shift to create a totally paper free world. But I’ll definitely reduce, reuse, recycle, and find better alternatives for paper wherever possible.

    BTW, thanks for the 4 hour work week Tim. I am not yet as successful as I would like to be with the ideas in the 4HWW, but the information has been extremely helpful in my business endeavors.

    Reply

  • Vivus — December 23rd, 2012, 8:05 am

    Recently, I moved from large city to a village with less than 3000 inhabitants. Its so silent, but I like it. Living without internet would be possible, but do not know if I want to have it.

    Reply

  • Adam — March 13th, 2013, 11:44 am

    Hey Tim,
    As usual, a great read. Im not sure that I agree with the no cash thing though… too many people these days live by their credit card. With that, they feel like they have unending access to cash… which is bad.

    Gonna try out the Pinger tool though.
    Thanks
    Adam

    Reply

  • Matt — April 22nd, 2013, 11:48 pm

    Sensational ideas! Especially getting voice mail to inbox – that alone has saved us some time. No more keying in mailbox numbers and passwords – and i can get my messages on the go. Woo hoo!

    Reply

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