just enter your email address below to get this blog's updates, news, and more!47 Decent Lifestyle Design Resources
Photo by TravelTrailerSNZ.
[Note: I intentionally decided not to use a beach photo. Lifestyle design means different things to different people; it isn't just for middle-aged businessmen living as expats in coastal regions, although that is the stereotype.]
Lifestyle design (LD) has a lengthy past but a short history. The art of (sometimes radical) lifestyle configuration, however, has been practiced for quite sometime by liberated people from all walks of life.
The growth of the Internet has enabled those loaded with cash to disconnect from the 9-5 without disconnecting from their Porches, Louis Vuitton gear, mobile cash cow businesses, and brokerage accounts. The Internet’s rise has also allowed persons from less auspicious backgrounds (like myself) to live creatively without making seemingly prohibitive income sacrifices. Indeed, if one plays their cards right, a mainstream Internet presence can eliminate the monetary drawbacks that used to come with a a non-mainstream lifestyle. Technology has come a long way, and I’m glad that lifestyles are starting to catch up.
Here’s a list of lifestyle design resources that might be of help to the interested.
Here goes:
TOOLS
- AwayFind – The Painless Escape from Email that works with the 4-Hour Workweek, GTD…and your sanity
- Dreamlining Worksheet (highly recommended)
- Ideal Lifestyle Costing Worksheets
BOOKS
- Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business
- Escape 101: The Four Secrets to Taking a Sabbatical or Career Break Without Losing Your Money or Your Mind (note: see my interview with Dan Clements here).
- Gap Years for Grown Ups
- Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance
- In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed
- Lonely Planet Career Break Book
- Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life
- Power Sabbatical: The Break That Makes a Difference
- Six Months Off: How to plan, Negotiate and Take the Break you Need Without Burning Bridges or Going Broke
- Soul Proprietor: 101 Lessons From a Lifestyle Entrepreneur
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
- The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube
- The Family Sabbatical Handbook: The Budget Guide To Living Abroad With Your Family
- The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works
- Time off From Work: Using Sabbaticals to Enhance Your Life While Keeping Your Career on Track
- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
- X Marks The Spot: The Indispensable Guide To Living As A LIP & Working From Anywhere
- Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence
Lifestyle Design Websites
- Location Independent
- Anywired
- My Tropical Escape
- The Newly Rich
- Traveling Remote and Working as a Couple
- Is A Location Independent Life Cheaper Than Living In One Place? Just How Much Money Do You Need? A 12 Month Breakdown
- Vagablogging | Rolf Pott’s Vagabonding Guide
- Vagabondish
Articles, Blogs, and Blog Posts
- Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Complete Guide and 40+ Resources
- 63 Life-Changing Quotes on Lifestyle Design
- 4 Hour Life
- Four Hour Work Week Journal
- Project Nomad
- Steve Pavlina’s 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
- Location Independent Ways to Make Money
- The 4-Daughter Workweek
- Erik Folgate’s Top Ten Ways for the Millenial Generation To Earn Alternative Income
PODCASTS
- Next Level Lifestyle’s What is Lifestyle Design?
- Duct Tape Marketing’s Is There a 4-Hour Workweek In Your Future?
- Genius Types’ About Creative Life and Passive Income
- Steve Pavlina’s How to Make Money Without a Job
Lifestyle design is by no means a solidified concept. It goes by many names, and fragments of information are distributed across the Internet and buried in sundry places. As such, this list is by no means exhaustive. Anyway, since I’ll be maintaining this list over time, please do send me a relevant link if you have one.
[tags]lifestyle design, four hour work week, 4hww, lifestyle entrepreneurs, work life balance, Timothy Ferriss[/tags]
View Comments
Hey Clay – even though I live by the beach in the Caribbean, I am not quite at middle age…to me lifestyle design is all about pursuing personal freedom.
My next goal will be to attempt to create some passive income streams so that when I am ready for a break from the Caribbean (and choose to travel) I will be able to do so without financial burden. In fact, I have just created the Anywired-Middlebrook Make Money Online Challenge for myself so I can get my arse in gear.
Thanks for linking to me and for putting this resource together!
Mark
Clay, I love that image. Much more adventurous than a beach photo.
Thanks for the link-love. It’s an honor to have an article included in such a value-packed list.
Clay, I really like how you’re being a little different here with the non-traditional photo, as well as the downplayed headline.
The Newly Rich (fourth link under “Lifestyle Design Websites”) seems to have gone away though. I visited that site after Tim Ferriss mentioned it as “a 4HWW-themed site focused specifically on families.” However, it’s now just an empty search page. I hope they’re planning to come back!
Great list, by the way. I recognize some of these links, and you have some good choices here. There are also plenty of new ones to check out.
Great links! Now I just need to find them on MP3 so I can listen to them in the car.
@ Hunter: Oh, yeah I totally listed the wrong site for The Newly Rich. I’ve gone back and fixed the link, but I’ll also give it to you here: it’s http://TheNewlyRich.com ; the link does work.
–Clay
Yeah Clay, TheNewRichly.com looks familiar. But I found it listed as NewlyRich.com at both 4HWW and Zen Habits, so maybe they changed the domain at some point. Thanks for the update. It’s always nice to see the 4HWW in action.
You know Clay, that’s what I like about you. You don’t do the “expected”.
I love the photo and the links are superb. It’s another post of yours that deserves getting bookmarked.
Hi Clay,
Thanks for the TWO links–much appreciated. This is a great list, as well!
Now the real question becomes whether and how all this attention to “lifestyle design” has improved your own schedule, activities, and general quality of vida…
Cheers.
Lots of reading material here, Clay. Thanks a bunch.
And even though my ideal lifestyle involves a tropical beach, a margarita and a sarong, I think your picture is sweet and memorable.
Now if I can just get my internet connection to stay up so I can read all those resources, I’ll be right!
Kelly
The 4 hour work week is great! I really enjoy that book. He is a dynamic speaker.
Clay, I like the caravan / shack, it means a lot more than a sandy beach for sure. In fact… is it for sale?
As a newly practicing LD’er I really appreciate the site and all of the refrences. Can’t wait to digg in!
Great list here I am very happy I found it. Although now I’ve got so much reading to do I don’t know that I’ll start making any money.
Thanx for the list. Very Helpful!
Good list of links here, I need to find the time to go through them all 
Also worth checking out is http://therenmenshow.com and possibly even my blog http://oligibson.com
I'd add Maya Frost to your list. She writes about lifestyle design for students in her book and on her blog, “The New Global Student”: http://www.mayafrost.com/blog/
I liked your article very useful to me. I will come back and read the article again.
More info on the web site Linking
Great list…and I'm also going through a lifestyle redesign, so seeing this list is extremely helpful for me. A great jumping off point or for when I need a little inspiration. Being a mom to a toddler, a small business owner…it's always on my mind to get life in order and running as effectively as possible.
living simple is much better…
there is really lot of things to enjoy in having a simple life…
there is really lot of things to enjoy in having a simple life…
Great website – great resources!
Thanks.
Lara Jane
Thanks for the resources….I'll definitely make use of them!
I recently started a lifestyle design/4HWW show. If you want to, check it out @ http://www.NewRichProject.com
Good indeed. I don't want to miss this opportunity. Thanks for such information.
Wow, Clay, this is quite the list. I’m currently going through some lifestyle redesigning myself, and I appreciate you taking the time to compile this post. I also appreciate that you avoided the beach template – it helps affirm my choice to go all Walden Pond. Great work!