The Four-Hour Work Week Top Ten Tips

1 Check e-mails once a day at most, and never first thing

2 Wriggle out of meetings

3 Delegate, or outsource, all labour-intensive tasks

4 Practise being awkward, so you're not troubled with trifles

5 Take outrageous liberties with your working practices without asking permission. You can always apologise afterwards

6 Apply Pareto's Law: focus on the 20 per cent of work that produces 80 per cent of profits

7 Dump the 80 per cent that produces 20 per cent of profits

8 Cultivate “selective ignorance”. Don't waste time reading what's of no relevance to you

9 Liberate yourself gradually from the workplace, claiming to work more efficiently from home

10 Don't defer having fun till you're too old. Take two or three “mini-retirements” each year

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, Vermillion, £10.99