MARGIN NOTES — WORK AUDIT WORKSHEET
English · Version 2026-10-04
Article: https://specialshipx.com/essays/four-hour-workweek-developer-work-audit/

An original Margin Notes template accompanying our discussion of selected
ideas in Timothy Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek. This is not a worksheet from
the book or an official resource endorsed by its author or publisher.
It contains no completed experiment and promises no time or income result.

Save a copy and fill it in on your own device. There is no submission form
or upload service here. Leave personal, client, and account details out.
Use the article for context and limits; do not treat this sheet as the book.

1. CHOOSE ONE ROUTINE
Task:
Problem it is meant to solve:
What counts as one comparable task:
Quality that must be maintained, and how I will check it:
Responsibilities/urgent alerts that must remain in place:

2. OBSERVE THE BASELINE
Observe an ordinary working week before changing the routine.
Start date:                         End date:
Working days/hours available:
Each entry: date | task count | routine minutes | setup/checking/correction
minutes | interruptions | quality or missed issues | unusual conditions
Record each minute once. Use unknown where you have not measured a field.
Entry 1:
Entry 2:
Entry 3:
Entry 4:
Entry 5:
Entry 6:
Entry 7:
Add entries or extend the period if needed; mark holidays and outages.

3. PLAN ONE REVERSIBLE CHANGE
One change under my control:
Why it might help (a hypothesis, not a result):
Other factors I will try to keep comparable:
Planned follow-up start/end dates:
Why the working days, task mix, and workload are comparable:
Review date:
Specific condition that means I should stop or reverse the change:
How I will restore the previous routine:

4. OBSERVE THE FOLLOW-UP
Actual start date:                  Actual end date:
Working days/hours available:
Use the same fields and counting rules as the baseline, including setup,
checking and correction. Record shortcomings as well as improvements.
Entry 1:
Entry 2:
Entry 3:
Entry 4:
Entry 5:
Entry 6:
Entry 7:
Add entries or extend the period if needed.

5. COMPARE WITH QUALITY IN VIEW
                                Baseline       Follow-up
Comparable task count:
Routine minutes:
Setup/checking/correction minutes:
Total minutes (the two rows above):
Interruptions:
Quality check results:
Missed issues and their effects:
Differences in task difficulty, workload, holidays or outages:
Other changes that could explain the result:
Missing evidence:

If useful, compare total minutes per comparable task: total minutes divided
by task count, only when the count is greater than zero. Do not treat tasks
of different difficulty as equal. A shorter total alone does not show an
improvement. Short observation cannot prove lasting reliability or income.

6. DECIDE
Keep / revise / reverse / inconclusive:
Evidence and trade-offs behind this choice:
What remains uncertain:
Next review date and condition for an earlier review:

Time saved, income, and the value of your next activity are separate questions.
Do not cancel safety checks or rights-complaint handling to improve a number.
Book and source discussion: use the article linked above.