#147: How to Avoid the Busy Trap (And Other Misuses of Your Time)

Today's episode is a bite-sized morsel for your brain and for your life. This is an excerpt from my favorite writing of all time. This letter is #22, "On the Futility of Halfway Measures." As usual, Seneca takes a little time in his preamble to get warmed up. That is his style. He seems to enjoy feeling out the recipient of his letter before jumping into the details. I love this letter because it addresses how we spend our time, which is one of the biggest stresses for all people, and especially entrepreneurs. My favorite portion is: "Hence men leave such advantages as these with reluctance." I encourage you to listen to this and think of ways that you can adapt Seneca's wisdom to your own life. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront https://wealthfront.com/tim. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim. This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs http://99designs.com/tim, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs. I used them to rapid prototype the cover http://99designs.com/tim for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service http://99designs.com/tim. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link http://www.99designs.com/tim and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start to shake.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Can I answer your personal question?

• 0:08Speaker 02

  No, what is the appropriate time?

• 0:12Speaker 01

  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 0:23Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim.

• 1:08Tim Ferriss?

  Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, etc.,

• 1:50Tim Ferriss?

  can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything, they charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first 15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest $830,000. ...account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials. So I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast.

• 2:32Tim Ferriss?

  But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim. This episode is brought to you by 99designs.

• 3:13Tim Ferriss?

  When your business needs a logo, website, business card, thumbnail, or any other design, I recommend checking out 99designs. I use them myself. I've used them for many years. I use them to create book cover prototypes for The Four Hour Body, which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller. I've also used them for banner ads, illustrations, and much more. With 99designs, you get a variety of original designs from designers around the world. Give your feedback, and then pick your favorite. Your happiness is guaranteed. So check out some of my competitions and designs, and some of your competitions and designs, from fellow Tim Ferriss Show listeners, at 99designs.com/tim. And right now, you can get a free $99 upgrade on your first design. So check it out. 99designs.com/tim.

• 4:01Tim Ferriss?

  Hello, my gorgeous little groundhogs. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This is not a long-form interview. In fact, it is a bite-sized morsel for your brain and for your life. And this is an excerpt from my favorite writing of all time that I review at least once a quarter. The Letters to Lucilius, Moral Letters to Lucilius by Seneca the Younger, roughly 2,000 years old. And this letter is number 22, On the Futility of Halfway Measures. And as usual, Seneca takes a little time in his preamble to get warmed up. That is his style, kind of feeling out the opponent, i.e. the recipient of his letter, as if in a boxing match. And then he jumps right into it. And there's some really valuable takeaways here.

• 4:46Tim Ferriss?

  My favorite portion begins with, "Hence, men leave such advantages as these with reluctance." And it is a gem. I really encourage you to listen to this over and over again, particularly the passages beginning with, "Hence, men leave such advantages as these with reluctance." And you can find all of these letters, I think they're about 120 in three volumes, as part of my book club if you're interested. The Tao of Seneca is the compilation, and I created it because I wanted to listen to this in audio and couldn't find it. And all of that and more can be found at audible.com/timsbooks. So please enjoy Seneca, On the Futility of Halfway Measures.

• 5:28Speaker 00

  Letter 22, On the Futility of Halfway Measures. You understand by this time that you must withdraw yourself from those showy and depraved pursuits, but you still wish to know how this may be accomplished. There are certain things which can be pointed out only by someone who is present. The physician cannot prescribe by letter the proper time for eating or bathing; he must feel the pulse. There is an old adage about gladiators, that they plan their fight in the ring as they intently watch. Something in the adversary's glance, some movement of his hand, even some slight bending

• 6:10Speaker 00

  of his body, gives a warning. We can formulate general rules and commit them to writing as to what is usually done or ought to be done. Such advice may be given, not only to our absent friends, but also to succeeding generations.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  In regard, however, to that second question, when or how your plan is to be carried out, no one will advise at long range. We must take counsel in the presence of the actual situation. You must be not only present in the body, but watchful in mind, if you would avail yourself of the fleeting opportunity. Accordingly, look about you for the opportunity. If you see it, grasp it, and with all your energy and with all your strength devote yourself to this task, to rid yourself of those business duties. Now, listen carefully to the opinion which I shall offer.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  It is my opinion that you should withdraw either from that kind of existence, or else from existence altogether. But I likewise maintain that you should take a gentle path, that you may loosen rather than cut the knot which you have bungled so badly in tying, provided that if there shall be no other way of loosening it, you may actually cut it. No man is so faint-hearted that he would rather hang in suspense forever than drop once for all. Meanwhile, and this is of first importance, do not hamper yourself. Be content with the business into which you have lowered yourself, or, as you prefer to have people think, have tumbled.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  There is no reason why you should be struggling on to something further. If you do, you will lose all grounds of excuse, and men will see that it was not a tumble. The usual explanation which men offer is wrong. "I was compelled to do it. Suppose it was against my will. I had to do it." But no one is compelled to pursue prosperity at top speed. It means something to call a halt, even if one does not offer resistance, instead of pressing eagerly after favoring fortune. Shall you then be put out with me, if I not only come to advise you, but also call in others to advise you, wiser heads than my own,

• 8:40Speaker 00

  men before whom I am wont to lay any problem upon which I am pondering? Read the letter of Apicurus, which appears on this matter. It is addressed to Idomeneus. The writer asks him to hasten as fast as he can, and beat a retreat before some stronger influence comes between, and takes from him the liberty to withdraw. But he also adds, that one should attempt nothing, except at the time when it can be attempted suitably and seasonably. Then, when the long sought occasion comes, let him be up and doing. Apicurus forbids us to doze when we are meditating escape. He bids us hope for a safe release from even the hardest trials,

• 9:25Speaker 00

  provided that we are not in too great a hurry before the time, nor too dilatory when the time arrives. Now, I suppose you are looking for a stoic motto also. There is really no reason why anyone should slander that school to you, on the ground of its rashness. As a matter of fact, its caution is greater than its courage. You are perhaps expecting the sect, to utter such words as these. It is base to flinch under a burden. Wrestle with the duties which you have once undertaken. No man is brave and earnest if he avoids danger, if his spirit does not grow with the very difficulty of his task.

• 10:08Speaker 00

  Words like these will indeed be spoken to you, if only your perseverance shall have an object that is worthwhile, if only you will not have to do or to suffer anything unworthy of a good man. Besides, a good man will not waste himself upon mean and discreditable work, or be busy merely for the sake of being busy. Neither will he, as you imagine, become so involved in ambitious schemes, that he will have continually to endure their ebb and flow. Nay, when he sees the dangers, uncertainties, and hazards in which he was formerly tossed about, he will withdraw, not turning his back to the foe, but falling back little by little to a safe position.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  From business, however, my dear Lucilius, it is easy to escape, if only you will despise the rewards of business. But we are held back and kept from escaping by thoughts like these: What then? Shall I leave behind me these great prospects? Shall I depart at the very time of harvest? Shall I have no slaves at my side? No retinue for my litter? No crowd in my reception room?

• 11:24Speaker 00

  Hence men leave such advantages as these with reluctance. They love the reward of their hardships, but curse the hardships themselves. Men complain about their ambitions as they complain about their mistresses. In other words, if you penetrate their real feelings, you will find not hatred, but bickering. Search the minds of those who cry down what they have desired, who talk about escaping from things which they are unable to do without. You will comprehend that they are lingering of their own free will in a situation which they declare they find it hard and wretched to endure. It is so, my dear Lucilius.

• 12:07Speaker 00

  There are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.

• 12:15Speaker 00

  If, however, you intend to be rid of this slavery, if freedom is genuinely pleasing in your eyes, and if you seek counsel for this one purpose, that you may have the good fortune to accomplish this purpose without perpetual annoyance, how can the whole company of stoic thinkers fail to approve your course? Zeno, Chrysippus, and all their kind will give you advice that is temperate, honorable, and suitable. But if you keep turning round and looking about in order to see how much you may carry away with you, and how much money you may keep to equip yourself for the life of leisure, you will never find a way out. No man can swim ashore and take his baggage with him.

• 12:59Speaker 00

  Rise to a higher life with the favor of the gods. But let it not be favor of such a kind as the gods give to men when with kind and genial faces they bestow magnificent ills, justified in so doing by the one fact that the things which irritate and torture have been bestowed in answer to prayer.

• 13:22Speaker 00

  I was just putting the seal upon this letter, but it must be broken again, in order that it may go to you with its customary contribution, bearing with it some noble word. And lo, here is one that occurs to my mind. I do not know whether its truth or its nobility of utterance is the greater. Spoken by whom, you ask? By Apicurus, for I am still appropriating other men's belongings. The words are: "Everyone goes out of life, just as if he had but lately entered it." Take anyone off his guard, young, old, or middle-aged,

• 14:02Speaker 00

  you will find that all are equally afraid of death and equally ignorant of life. No one has anything finished, because we have kept putting off into the future all our undertakings. No thought in the quotation given above pleases me more than that it taunts old men with being infants. "No one," he says, "leaves this world in a different manner from one who has just been born." That is not true, for we are worse when we die than when we were born, but it is our fault and not that of nature. Nature should scold us, saying: "What does this mean?

• 14:45Speaker 00

  I brought you into the world without desires or fears, free from superstition, treachery, and the other curses. Go forth as you were when you entered." A man has caught the message of wisdom, if he can die as free from care as he was at birth. But, as it is, we are all aflutter at the approach of the dreaded end. Our courage fails us, our cheeks blanch, our tears fall, though they are unavailing. But what is baser than to fret at the very threshold of peace? The reason, however, is that we are stripped of all our goods. We have jettisoned our cargo of life and are in distress.

• 15:28Speaker 00

  For no part of it has been packed in the hold. It has all been heaved overboard and has drifted away. Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long. Although, it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long. Farewell.

• 15:57Tim Ferriss?

  Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric, as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short.

• 16:39Tim Ferriss?

  It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com, all spelled out, and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

• 17:01Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by 99designs. When your business needs a logo, website, business card, thumbnail, or any other design, I recommend checking out 99designs. I use them myself. I've used them for many years. I use them to create book cover prototypes for The Four Hour Body, which went on to become a number one York Times bestseller. I've also used them for banner ads, illustrations, and much more. With 99designs, you get a variety of original designs from designers around the world. Give your feedback and then pick your favorite. Your happiness is guaranteed. So check out some of my competitions and designs and some of your competitions and designs from fellow Tim Ferriss Show listeners at 99designs.com/tim. And right now, you can get a free $99 upgrade on your first design.

• 17:45Tim Ferriss?

  So check it out, 99designs.com/tim.

• 17:53Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second.

• 18:35Tim Ferriss?

  I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim. Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis, but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, etc.,

• 19:20Tim Ferriss?

  can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything, they charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first 15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest $830. $15,000 account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on the show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials. So I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast.

• 20:03Tim Ferriss?

  But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim. And until next time, thank you for listening.