A college student

[ScottMys]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum and everything 4hww. I just started reading the book. I love everything in it and agree with the lifestyle. However, I'm curious how it applies to me. I'm in college. I think a lot of students would love to know how 4hww applies to them.

How do I make the best use of my resource (any ivy league school) while keeping Tim Ferris in mind?

i.e. Should I audit higher level business classes? Should I study abroad? Should I just say yes to all the great opportunities to try new things here at school?

Just to give a little about me: My goals in life are to pay off my parents paying for college ASAP, travel, row competitively and maximize my positive experiences (have fun/party).

I'd just like to add that I'm very satisfied with my life right now. I'm in no way a work slave, I'm just curious how I could make it even better.

Thanks for your help. :)

[NickG]

Hey man,

Fellow college student here. I'm spending my time ensuring my grades are as close to 100% as possible while putting in as little time as possible. Oddly enough, I've managed to 4HWW my school. I only focus on my classes for about 4 hours a week outside of the actual class room. I've been acing every test, project, and homework.

One thing I do is train my brain. I play games at a website called Lumosity ( www.lumosity.com ). It only takes 15 - 20 minutes a day but I think it's played a huge part in developing my ability to read 4+ pages of notes 2 - 3 times and have it completely learned.

Another thing i'm doing is working on a business that will grant me the lifestyle I want once school is over. I may not need a lot of money right now (living off of parents and $500 a month) but after I graduate I'll want to travel the world. By the time I graduate I'll have build enough income and automated it to the point where I can do whatever I want.

After that life looks pretty simple. I just follow my passions of going to parties with friends, snowboarding, and martial arts.

So, as far as what you do with your time at college, that's up to you. You don't have to say yes to every opportunity. In fact, that's one reason you differ from a typical college student. You're aware that working for the rest of your life isn't required. You are aware of another route to take. Your success doesn't depend on whether you say yes to everything or not. It depends on what you do with your time.

Build a business. Automate it. Make your school years a total cake walk while developing enough income for you to travel and pay back your parents. Of course, your traveling could focus on your rowing passions. Or not. The choice is yours.

Keep the forums posted on your business ventures. There are many people here who group together to learn about creating a muse.

Add me on Skype and I can share with you some more info on what I'm working on.

Skype name: NicksIdeaEngine

Cheers,
Nick

[kablooey]

...

One thing I do is train my brain. I play games at a website called Lumosity ( www.lumosity.com (http://www.lumosity.com) ). It only takes 15 - 20 minutes a day but I think it's played a huge part in developing my ability to read 4+ pages of notes 2 - 3 times and have it completely learned.



Do you know of any other websites like Lumosity that are free? What other brain training do you do?

...

Another thing i'm doing is working on a business that will grant me the lifestyle I want once school is over. I may not need a lot of money right now (living off of parents and $500 a month) but after I graduate I'll want to travel the world. By the time I graduate I'll have build enough income and automated it to the point where I can do whatever I want.

...

Build a business. Automate it.


What kind of business are you building?

[preneur]

Hey Scott,

My advice would be to enjoy college. Don’t try to become the next Richard Branson straightaway. The partying, enjoy that. And once you’re out of college, then worry about building your business and the lifestyle.

I think it’s worth actually focusing on the time with your friends and family, and just really have those positive experiences – the partying and the fun that you mentioned. Worry about the rest of the stuff afterwards.

Look, there’s plenty of time to make money and grow businesses and stuff like that. I’ve done it many times over. But one thing I regret is not actually partying as much during college as I probably should have.

Cheers,
Pete

p.s. This response was actually transcribed and posted by my virtual assistant.

[pisco]

[QUOTE=NickG;36577]Hey man,

Fellow college student here. I'm spending my time ensuring my grades are as close to 100% as possible while putting in as little time as possible. Oddly enough, I've managed to 4HWW my school. I only focus on my classes for about 4 hours a week outside of the actual class room. I've been acing every test, project, and homework.

One thing I do is train my brain. I play games at a website called Lumosity ( www.lumosity.com ). It only takes 15 - 20 minutes a day but I think it's played a huge part in developing my ability to read 4+ pages of notes 2 - 3 times and have it completely learned.
/QUOTE]

wow thats amazing.

Would you be so kind to describe the process how you learn?

greetings

[Loc]

Hi guys,

How do I make the best use of my resource (any ivy league school) while keeping Tim Ferris in mind?




I graduated in 2007 after working my butt off (double Bio and Business major) and partying hard. I definitely made full use of the education and partying opportunities. My one and only regret was not making better use of the tons of smart ppl around me. That's wut the guys at Google did. What Mark at Facebook did. What Steve Jobs did. What Bill Gates did. Simply put, there's tons of smart ppl in college w/o an avenue to vent it or the drive to pursue something. I suggest you adopt Tim's idea of "outsourcing" and gather your own workforce in college to pursue something great. All you have to do is provide direction.

[NickG]

Pisco, I crunch the time allotted for doing course work down significantly and I use lucid dreaming to learn material for tests rapidly.

Instead of thinking, "I have to write this Research Paper. It's going to take at least three hours," I compress everything and tell myself, "You have thirty minutes. Write without stopping."

When I do this my goal is to simply finish the paper as far as content goes. After that I just go back, revise thoroughly, and typically I've produced something acceptable (not perfect) by then. When I'm writing, though, there is NOTHING else on my mind. If distractions happen I allow them to pass as soon as possible.

For studying, I read heavily compressed notes based on either the teachers notes or the chapters in the book. I read them out loud to as though I'm having a conversation with myself or I'm teaching the information to myself. I do this several times before bed, sleep for four hours while trying to focus my dreams on the information I've gathered, wake up and read the notes a few more times, sleep another four hours focusing my dreams, then I wake up and read the notes during breakfast. I'll also read them before the test. I've managed a lot of perfect scores using this method. Credit for the idea goes to Tim, though. He did this when learning Yabusame in Japan.

That's pretty much it. I just don't allow myself to fall for the whole "for each hour you spend in the class room you need to spend 3 hours outside the class room studying and doing work." Fuck that. I know how to earn an income. I'm in college to enjoy myself, meet people (even the professors are part of my 'network'), and learn as much as I can.

I guess that could be a part of it, too. I love school. I really enjoy the environment. I use to dislike it but now I love it because it isn't a huge stressor in my life.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Nick

EDIT: I also meditate a lot. This helps me clear my head and focus when I need to take in information (whether studying or tuning in to what the professor is talking about really well)

[jaansepping]

Hello to everyone

I'm new to the forum and would like to ask about the same topic:
I am currently reading 4-hour-body and there is much talk there about the importance of collecting data and tracking your improvement. How can one track improvement both in the time it takes to get schoolwork done and at the same time track that one could get a maximum amount of knowledge in a minimum amount of time because college is also about getting smarter not just getting papers done and exams aced, isn't it?
In conclusion: how can one track progress in studying?

[affinity]

Hey NickG,

Thanks for the advice on the lumosity!

I played the game for ~3 days and was pretty impressed. Then I thought of the 80/20 rule - which couple of games will help me the most?

After looking around on the site I came to the conclusion that the dual n-back test is probably one of the best tests there. There's experiments supporting that it increases fluid intelligence (that's what we're after to increase our learning ability, right?).

What are your thoughts on this?

[BSS]

great thread, I am going to have to apply that study method mentioned before.

I actually just finished my first semester. I kinda am in a major transition phase with a lot of shit. Actually I was extremely social(forced bc I sucked in High School), started my own business (I will list it for you guys once its fully launched, actually if u wanna make passive income it has some potential for anyone interested in a franchise/partnership like deal, however I wanna see if it works in my college first). However my grades sucked, even though everything else did well. I got myself together physically too.

Overall, good, however this transition into the 4 hour work/study week went poorly, even though I only recently read the book. Besides the business everything else did not work well for the book in college, I think it is only because I had 2 wks to apply it at that point. This thread is great because I know it actually works now. I am so pumped for next semester, can't wait to start doing well in all categories of life.

But it is funny noticing how many people (myself included) worked so inefficiently.

A bit of an annoying effect the book had on me was that I thought much less of school+grades. Its hard to concentrate on it when I see myself being coerced into the 9-5 type environment, between parents, teachers, friends,etc. Also, it makes school feel less useful,since half the classes are annoying, bs, and taught by bad profesors.

Btw some questions:

Did you find the speed reading useful, because I found whileI could comprehend the material, I could not pound through textbooks, I just couldn't absorb the info that fast?

For lucid dreams, I have excellent recall due to the journal but despite a month of doing reality checks nothing worked?


thx, great posts. By the way, I personally recomend starting a business in college, it is extremely fun+exciting. Just make sure you build automation into it from the start. Because at this rate I would be screwed if I didn't. Also, if it becomes profitable it is very nice to have $$$ in college. I know I would have plenty of things to spend it on, Spring Break, clubs, summer, skiing, etc.

Good luck.

[ikillez]

Do you know of any other websites like Lumosity that are free? What other brain training do you do?

Hey,

Just wanted to let you know that lumosity.com also has iPhone apps for individual games and also a Brain Trainer app which offers a subscription for far cheaper than the online version (I think it's like 10$ a year). You get fewer games but I wanted to see if I can actually get into the habit of using it everyday before paying 15$/month

Hope that helps :)

[Ceejee]

Hey Scott,

My advice would be to enjoy college. Don’t try to become the next Richard Branson straightaway. The partying, enjoy that. And once you’re out of college, then worry about building your business and the lifestyle.



This post has the right of it.

As a senior about to start my last semester, I have come to realize that the friendships you build over these four years are the most important thing you will ever do in your life so far. There is absolutely no need to start working when you don't have to. Enjoy your time there, get drunk, meet people, meet girls, etc.

This is all too relevant to me because freshman year, I was heavily into trading. I was waking up early to research potential moves for that day, and was basically glued to my computer during market hours. I was making solid cash, but I wasn't really meeting anyone. I cashed out very much in the green, but I lost a lot of time where I could have met people. Once I wasn't worried about making money and started focusing on living in the moment, my enjoyment of life skyrocketed.

So, my advice is basically forget about putting hours into setting up a muse. There really is no need, as the initial hours required to bust things open will most likely mess up your social life.

If you think you can juggle the running of a business, and your social life - go for it. But there's another part of college to think of: studying.

You're in school to get a degree... do not forget this. Do not try and cut corners with your studying, it won't work.