5 Time management tricks I learned from years of hating Tim Ferriss
I have hated Tim Ferriss for a long time. I have hated him since we both had editors at Crown Publishing who sat next to each other and I heard how difficult he is.
I didn’t blog about it because first of all, I’m sure the buzz about me is that I’m difficult, too. And also, his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, was a bestseller and mine wasn’t. So I figured people would say that I’m jealous. And really, what author is not jealous sometimes? I mean, every author wants to write a bestseller.
But at this point, two years later, my hatred goes way beyond jealousy. My hatred is more selfless than that. And while I do understand that Tim is great at accelerated learning, the time management tips I have learned from him stem from the energy I have spent hating him:
1.Don’t hang out with people who don’t respect your time
This all started at SXSW conference in 2007, right before Tim’s book came out, when he was promoting the hell out of it to bloggers. Of course, this was not a bad idea, and to be fair, Tim was brilliant to start this book marketing trend. But that is beside the point. He approached me after my panel and said, “Can I get you coffee? I’d love to talk with you.”
I said, “Uh. No. I have plans.”
And he asked who with.
I wasn’t really sure. I knew there were cool people to hang out with after my panel, though, and I knew he wasn’t one of them. I gave a vague answer.
He said he was also meeting three people, and he name-dropped them. I can’t remember who they were. But they were fun, interesting, and I wanted to have coffee with them. So I said okay.
Then Tim couldn’t find them and I had coffee with only Tim.
Then I realized this was his strategy all along.
I told myself not to be pissy. I told myself bait-and-switch is the oldest sales tool in the world, and it’s my fault for falling for it.
I even wrote a blog post that included his book.
2.Cut to the chase: Tell people who are full of sh*t that they’re full of sh*t
When his book came out, there were vacuous, annoying comments all over my blog directing people to his book. Like, “The topic of priorities is an interesting one. I like how Tim Ferris handles that in his new book,blah blah” and then there’s a link to the book.
At this point I knew Tim, sort of. And I called him on his phone and told him to tell his employees to stop spamming my blog.
First he implied it was his fan base and he had little control.
I said that I thought he was full of sh*t.
He said he’d make sure there were no more comments like that on my blog.
3.Self-centered people are more likely to waste your time
Really, when I found he was spamming my site, I didn’t call him first. First, I emailed him. And I got some sort of crazy response about how he is only checking email twice a day and then instructions on what to do.
I emailed him back to tell him that I do not want automatic emails from him every time I try to contact him.
Which generated another, identical response about how he doesn’t check mail.
So I called him to tell him that he is generating spam back to me to tell me about his email checking and I don’t care. If he wants to check twice a day, fine, but don’t clog my in box with emails about it.
He said he’d take me off his list.
I am STILL getting this sort of spam from him. But the scope has widened. For example, now, he has commented on my blog and he forgot to say that he doesn’t want to be alerted to new comments. So every time there’s a comment, he spams everyone in the comments string, telling them that he doesn’t answer his email.
It’s insane. I cannot believe how many automated announcements I receive saying that Tim does not have a Blackberry. (Yes, the email really says that.) What if we all sent automated emails like that? Email would be totally nonfunctional. What if Tim just shut up about his email and if he thinks its fine to answer twice a day, then he should do that? And not spam everyone about it.
4.Productivity is about meeting your goals, not getting out of doing work
The week that Tim actually works a four-hour work week will be a cold week in hell. Tim got to where he is by being an insanely hard worker. I don’t know anyone who worked harder at promoting a book than he did. But the thing is, he didn’t call it work. Somehow, sliming me into having coffee with him to talk about his book is not work.
Fine. But then his four-hour work week is merely semantic. Because everything Tim does he turns into what the rest of us would call work, and he calls it not-work. For example, tango. If you want to be world-record holder, it’s work. It’s your job to be special at dancing the tango. That’s your big goal that you’re working toward. How you earn money is probably just a day job. So most weeks Tim probably has a 100-hour workweek. It’s just that he’s doing things he likes, so he lies to you and says he only works four hours. He defines work only as doing what you don’t like.
It’s childish. It’s a childish, semantic game. And it reminds me of him winning the Chinese National Kickboxing Championships by leveraging a little-known rule that people are disqualified if they stop outside the box. So he pushed each of his opponents outside the box to win.
He is winning the I-work-less-than-you game with a similarly questionable method: semantics.
5.Time management is about making time to connect with people
The idea of time management only matters in relation to how important the stuff is that’s competing for your time. The stuff that makes time management the most difficult is relationships. Which Tim does not excel in.
Fine. Not everyone has to be good at making real connections.
But Tim runs around telling people who have lots of relationships competing for their time how to think about work/not work, forgetting that in the real world, where people are not assholes, time management is not an equation or a semantic game because relationships really matter. And figuring out how to judge time in terms of competing values is the hardest thing of all.
Tim is all about time management for achievement and winning. But there are not trophies or measurements for relationships. There is only that feeling that someone is kind. And good. And truly connected.
And Tim is not.
Sheesh! Really people. A little more humanity, please!
A few flaws in this article:
Tone:
The ‘woman scorned’ argument in the postings above notwithstanding, which may be accurate, you are entirely too bitter in your critique – it sounds like whining. Frankly it detracts from your argument, if it were even sound.
The work:
You say Tim defines work as anything he doesn’t like to do, and non-work as anything he likes to do (your example, tango)…..you are pretty much directly arguing against yourself there, ANYONE would like to do more of what they like, and less of what they don’t like.
Also, my interpretation was that his goal is to minimize the amount of time you spend doing things to MAKE MONEY, not ‘work’. I practice things all the time, things that some would consider work, but I love it.
His tactics:
By the fact that I’ve never heard of you or your book, and his is a NYT bestseller – as an outside observer, I should follow HIS tactics, not yours. His work, yours don’t. If you had spent the time writing this article to make your life more awesome somehow, instead of complaining about his, you would be further towards your goals / dreams.
Other than that, I like when people question things, good job. Make it less bitter next time and it will be more credible.
I agree with your but, there are different school of thoughts producing different ideas that has to brought into consideration.
Perhaps personal jealousy is what you are feeling for this guy… So if I were you just ignore him…
I stumbled upon your blog and liked the content quite a bit. This post was rather interesting and entertaining and has spurned this comment.
1- It seems like the Silicon Valley types are EXTREMELY narcissistic. I read Tims blogs and have his book and found it completely impractical for those who want to do anything non-profit oriented. Its all about making a buck. I was hoping to see if I could apply some of that stuff to perhaps a non-profit career. No way.
2- Someone mentioned his Twitter. He had a thing a while back where he worked with a charity to give to schools. He would match a dollar or so donation. I wouldn’t put it past his ego to boost his followers to further market himself.
3- I read a lot of Iwillteachyoutoberich and bought the book like a sucker. Ramit has turned Narcissistic with his newfound successes which I attribute to relationships with the king of it.
I will be taking a look at your book to see if it can help get off the unemployed schnide. Thanks for being real. Not many bloggers left that are like that.
Scott, you are missing Tim F’s point. The “making a buck” as you put is just a vehicle for doing something that is important to you ( “lifestyle design” as Tim F puts it), be it travel or non-profit work, or anything else.
Perhaps you could start a business a la Tim F. and use that to subsidize your non-profit career.
Try to think more than an inch deep about things that you read.
Interesting take. I have heard alot about Tim and his book but have yet to read it. This post gives me another angle to consider.
Anyway, I like your spicy tone.
LOVE it!
I read 4HWW and enjoyed most of it, but too much of what he does leaves me with that sort of slimy feeling. He seems to love his life and more power to him I guess.
But to quote someone else I just read recently “Sorry, I don’t take advice from people who don’t have what I want.”
Good points all.
very good tips. I am definatelly sugesting this site to friends
Amen, Penelope.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about success and hard work, however in order to sustain it you need to have built a network that you care for and treat with respect.
Tim is a great marketer, that’s all. in other things he is simply not telling the whole story, or just simply lying. It was never proven that he made so much money in his formulas business, he works like hell in blogging, twittering and lecturing. he claims that he does all the latter, because it’s fun, not work. but come’on, going from one convention to another it’s so fun? he knows that if he stops blogging, twittering what so ever, he doesn’t stand a chance to sell more books which earn him his salary.
“Tim Ferriss is a start-up angel investor (Twitter, Posterous, RescueTime, and others), blogger, and entrepreneur.”
he now claims that he has become an investor and angel founder (!) in twitter and other companies. strange, because no where I could find that he had ever invested in twitter.
and finally, if he is so successful, have so much mnoey, calls himself lifestyle designer – why all his link to amazon on his blog have a referral id. so he could earn the 20 cent per books that he recommends? the man is a high profile blogger, and i hope that someone will expose his full bluff someday.
I am with you, cannot stand a bullshitter and can see them coming a mile away. Maybe its my Aries nature not to put up with full of crap people and maybe its just the fact that life is too short for wasting my time on people who are full of themselves! I love this post and good for you- you are not jealous you are like me disgusted!
good for you for rating out the full of crap bullshitter!
It is amazing how many people can’t manage their time effectively. I am sick of hearing people complain that tasks are too big and they can’t get them done in time when all they have to do is start tackling the problem. Stopping yourself from being overwhelmed is my biggest tip. A big problem or a lot of work is usually just a group of very simple problems. Solve them 1 by 1 and the big concern is gone.
Fabulous. I must say those time management ricks are going to be very valuable for me.
I would be mentioning about this in my Sample Cover Letters blog too so that more people can learn these tricks.
I thought this post was hilarious. Granted, i’ve never read the book, so I have no other side of the argument. But I tend to be suspicious of anyone who claims he or she can be successful in only 4 hours a week.
Why just 4 hours? I do not believe.
I would recommend it. There’s a lot of good solid practical stuff in there.
BUT…
;)
Jess: It’s actually an interesting problem. It’s not that the skills of time management are so tough so much as people just not understanding that time IS manageable.
All those techniques, whether you use Pomodoro, Mark Forester’s Autofocus, GTD, DayTimer, Brian Tracy or Tony Robbins’ systems all are perfectly obvious once you hear them.
For instance, if you tell someone with a crappy todo list that their problem is that they’re not using atomic accomplishable tasks they usually stop, think a second then say “oh yeah.” Then it’s a matter of ‘just’ breaking bad habits and reinstating productive ones. THAT is hard.
But I think the big issue is that people seem not to think in terms of problems they face being solvable.
You’ll never find a solution if you’re not looking for one.
“Tim Ferriss is a start-up angel investor (Twitter, Posterous, RescueTime, and others), blogger, and entrepreneur.” Wow, he is very great!
Hah! That really made me laugh – thanks!
I love this post. Made me laugh.
look this blog entry is a best seller :)
Great Post ! I agree with the relationships issue and the not really “dealing with e-mails” part also.
That`s very interesting perspective
Tell people who are full of sh*t that they’re full of sh*t
Amen. And the spammers are slamming your blog. World full of sh*tty people
This is fascinating and awesome. This is the most concentrated, pungent dose of insight I have encountered online in the last year, at least.
Seriously? Based on his book promotion efforts and semantics about whether productive efforts that one enjoys are work or not, you have decided to publicly state that Tim isn’t “good”?
If the shoe fits…
Ah, jeez . . . hello? Being ubiquitous on the Internet and relentlessly marketing to the point of spamming people to get attention is so NOT the same as being good at relationships.
Shaking my head here . . . oh, f*ck it, believe what you like about Tim . . . there’s one born every minute, you know.
Great post. but i think tim has a thing with you?
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Sounds like you’re just jealous. Tim was merely showing what is possible. Changing the mind shift of most people’s perception that “you need to work hard for your money”. he’s just saving you form the delusion , as the majority of poeple are tied to their jobs to make a living rather than LIVE. Hobbies and a job are two seperate things.
He’s one of the minority that is actually making the most of this life we have, because it’s not about how much money you can make but how many great expereinces you get to have. The more time you have for these expereinces the more you are actually living LIFE. If you can get the money stuff sorted, and enough to fund your ‘experiences’ than that is true success.
Geez I hate it when people try to play stupid with you and feed you sh t! Even when you call them on it they won’t fess up, so frustrating!
Great article. I quite like number (4). From my experience, the best time wasters don’t understand the meaning of this comment.
Funny, that was my thougth when I read Tim Ferriss book, how he appeared as a lost-case workaholic who would turn any experience, activity and piece of fun into a relentless time-consuming job with a clear objective in time. I mean, what is exactly the point of training (rather than dancing) tango 8-hours a day to make the most turns than any one else? that only makes sense within a work context. Has the guy ever spent a minute of his life just hanging around?
Tim Ferriss´ four-hour week leaves me exhausted… But hey, what do I know, I am a European earning a reasonable salary, with long holidays and free weekends and plenty of time to devote to those I love and to enjoyable pursuits. The four-hour work week just sounds too much hard work.
Very good points. However if you eliminate the “I hate Ferris” bias then they are all points he’s made. That said very good points. I especially like the one where you suggest not wasting time with people who don’t respect your time.
A good way to get Tim back. Set up a dummy email. Set up your email to reply that you only check your email twice a day. Send him an email.
The emails bouncing back and fouth will shut his email down.
Nice article, interesting to see all these comments following.
Interesting article and I can see why you would be bothered by some of Tim’s antics. For me, 4HWW has been the most important book that I’ve read in the past 5 years and is my favorite non-fiction book. It gave me a framework where I could significantly reduce the number of hours I worked a week while being able to make more money. This allowed me to become the owner of my company instead of one of its employees.
Really, Tim’s book is a mesh of some of my other books:
1. The Emyth Revisited
2. The Goal – Eli Goldratt
3. Books on Lean Manufacturing
However, instead of talking mostly about products, he talks mostly about applying the concepts to life. I’ve read P’s book and heard her speak when I was at Cornell, but I personally get more out of Tim than her.
Yes, the 4-Hour Workweek is a best seller, but I didn’t like it… I couldn’t even finish it actually. I guess it’s just a matter of tastes.
This post is phenomenal…I love it. I just read Tim’s book but your stories here are awesome.
This post is absolutely enlightening. On a number of levels I respect Tim as well, but I was always curious on his posture and more so the trade offs of running some of his tactics (for example, point 5 and the fact he only uses Twitter as a sound board with 1 follower).
Well said and very interesting to hear your point of view.
Some good points, but I’m not a fan of the tone. I have never met Tim Ferriss, and you have so you are of course in a better position to judge his character/personality than I am, however I think you’re going a little hard on the “semantics” part of the book. I think the critics of the book are the ones who are stuck up on the semantics, the message was clear to me “reduce the clutter from your professional life, and spend more time doing what you like”. Tim brings this to an extreme level, but the lessons I learned from it were life changing for me.
Ahh the American ideal of all or nothing is alive and well. Life is shades of gray. I have his book, and while I could never run my life like he does, there are numerous resources in the book for the person wanteing to start a small business, or sell a small product.
For those of us who work full time jobs, and would like to try something without quitting our jobs, the resources are extremely valuable, from some of the call center operators, operating agreements, contract manufacturers, and even the ease of a yahoo ecommerce account.
Is he a huge self promoter, yep, he takes pride in it. Me, I am more modest but different strokes for different folks. Extract what you want out of the book and leave the rest. Do that with all lifestyle design.
What a load of bullshit.
I’ve actually gone through his book and DID what he said, you would see that his ideas for lifestyle design are solid.
Most people will just skim a book and pass judgment without even applying anything they learn. In fact, 90% of people never read past the first chapter. That’s a real statistic.
It’s EASIER to just criticize and point out what you don’t like… because if means you don’t have to DO anything. It’s laziness in disguise.
If you are one of those people, I urge you to stop wasting time ranting and actually go take some action.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
I feel like I was kinda starting to drink the Kool-Aid of 4HWW myself, but then I read your post and it did something to me that rarely happens in the blogosphere – it made me REALLY think.
Now I can’t stop thinking about what you said. I think I’ll come back later and reread, after I’ve thought about it some more.
Absolutely brilliant post – thank you!
Read his book recently but lost interest towards the end. There are a numerous books out there that cover this topic better.
hmm, you know i think that a lot of the stuff you said was probably true. It sounds like you feel a bit slighted by some of the things he has done and had some good take away’s from it. Would it be more beneficial to look at a relationship good or bad and realize what you learned and be greateful at least now you know. Ok you and Tim will not be friends, but sounds like you will be able to cut the bs earlier next time a person like that comes along. Just not sure how trying to belittle someone makes you look any better and frankly i am shocked at the comments. It just all seems a bit childish. “He stole my candy” He’s so bad, i hate him, he doesn’t even work 4 hours its a lot more and he says he likes what he does and he gave to charity to raise his twitter ranking and …etc..etc. Seriously? I think Tim at least encourgages people to go after their passions, is that a bad thing? I mean at the root, is that a bad thing?
So that being said I am standing up for Tim as not many people are here.
“Beware of small people as they will always try to belittle you, but the truly great will make you feel as if you too can become great”
Not saying that applies here, just wanted to throw that out so you can make your own judgements.
But in Tim’s defense, you know your starting to get some fame when people start slamming you. Whether you preframed the jealousy angle before the post it sure comes off like that. I am just saying…
I couldn’t agree with you more, in fact I laughed out loud and applauded to no one in particular when I read this post because it is like you read my mind.
As I always joke to my family when I hear Tim is promoting another book, I say its titled “How To Get ME More Moneyz”
I know you already have 349 comments but I also have to say that you’re awesome. I’m halfway through 4-hour workweek and I’ve been debating whether I should finish it. It just feels so slimy.
wow. This post is some shrill, bitter shit.
Much as many couldn’t get past the kick boxing in Ferriss’ blog, I couldn’t get over your description of your reaction when he asked you if you’d like to have coffee with him.
You sound mean. And self important.
And kind of a dick……
Get over yourself. The downside of the Internet is it gives no talents an venue to express themselves even if that expression amounts to absolute nothingness. If we could strip out this section of the economy [money exchanged for zippo, i.e.: your dribble here], it would be in dramatically worse shape than it already is today.
Most commenters missed the point. You wrote that you hate the author, not the book.
Megalomaniacs sometimes have a useful message. I don’t dismiss the useful half of 4HWW, just because the other half is extreme and narcissistic.
Just glad I don’t have to share an office with the guy.
I am so impressed with this post. I agree with everything you said. When I met Tim, I said to him, “I never bought your book because I don’t believe the title is possible.”
You just confirmed my take away of that and more.
Interesting stuff. Plus I love your honesty, so hard to find online right now. Big pot of fake reviews, fake endorsements, and fake this and that. I hate it. I cannot believe how hardd it is to find a REAL review on any internet products online now. Every dick,tom and harry is trying to make a million with fake review sites….grrrr…
I hate tim too, and those are some nice time managament tricks. Thanks for sharing :)
so many comments here
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