Tim Ferriss Can’t Find Balance
So here’s what he does instead.
It’s difficult to get things done, spend time with those you love, stay physically and mentally healthy, take time for your interests, and give back to the world. If you’re like me, one or two of those things take over and crowd out the others, leaving you feeling like you just can’t find the time for the things are (supposed to be) important.
It’s difficult to find balance.
In a recent YouTube video, Tim Ferriss confesses what happens when he doesn’t take steps to protect his priorities:
“[I]t’s not gonna work, things are gonna break. I’m going to neglect important areas, and I’m gonna pay the consequences as a result.”
According to Tim, you will never find balance. Instead, here’s what he says:
“My experience is that you will never find balance. […] The reason you won’t find it is because you have to schedule it. [… You have to] pay for stuff in advance, [and] commit to people so you have accountability.”
Schedule it.
Stop trusting your future self. Assume that your future self will be stressed, tired, and only want to waste time on social media. Once the day gets going, you will quickly fill the time if you haven’t previously scheduled it all beforehand. Ferriss comments:
“You have to fight every lesser tendency that you have, in my case, that will stimy and self sabotage by putting it into the calendar.”
Schedule out your work when you’re alert and aware of your priorities, not when you’re in the middle of everything. By scheduling your tasks when you have perspective, you can strategically delegate tasks to your future self that will consistently move your goals forward.
Don’t try to do everything on the same day. It’s easy to feel the unnecessary pressure to do a bit of everything every day. But leading your life with this kind of short-sighted anxiety can sabotage your progress and your productivity.
Instead, batch your tasks. This means that instead of trying to give short amounts of time to each of your priorities on Monday, set the day aside to focus on one thing. For example, Ferris shares that he commits Monday to administrative tasks. This practice will help you take advantage of flow states and protect you from losing focus.
Pay for stuff in advance.
Again, stop trusting your future self to make the right decision. Here, Ferris recommends that we use a psychological trick to keep our future self committed: the sunk cost fallacy.
The sunk cost fallacy states that people have “a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made.”¹
Do whatever you can do to make it more difficult to quit later. This is why it might not be a terrible idea to pay for that annual gym membership, even if you’re not that likely to go. The investment you’ve made makes you more likely to go exercise than if you hadn’t paid for it at all.
Commit to people so you have accountability.
Similar to paying in advance, committing to people ahead of time adds motivation for following through. This is especially important when it comes to relationships. If you’re like me and you often leave relationships for after you’ve taken care of your other priorities, you know that you usually don’t find the time and your relationships suffer.
To counter this tendency, plan ahead and make appointments with people to call them, zoom them, or (when we can!) meet up with them. Sometimes you can drop what you’re doing and call someone when you’re thinking about them, but this isn’t always possible nor is it always the wisest decision.
If you make a future appointment with that person, you’ll significantly increase your chances of connecting with them. Why? Because you now have the added social pressure to follow through and make the call. When Friday comes around and you’re in the middle of something, it will be much harder to postpone your appointment, knowing that you’ll be letting the person down and looking like an ass again.
The Takeaway
We all want to get things done, spend time with those we love, stay physically and mentally healthy, take time for our interests, and give back to the world, but it’s often incredibly difficult to find balance between these things.
If that’s you, stop trusting your future self to make the right decision. Instead, try this:
- Schedule it: Like Tim says, “If it’s not in the calendar, it’s not real.” Decide when you give time to your priorities before you’re in the middle of everything. Don’t expect balance to come, create balance in your calendar. Consider batching your tasks and setting aside times dedicated to the things important to you.
- Pay for stuff in advance: Use the “sunk cost fallacy” to make it more difficult to bail on your commitment. If you’ve already paid for it, you’re more likely to use it. Consider purchasing the annual plan at the gym or paying for five therapy sessions instead of just one.
- Commit to people so you have accountability: Instead of relying on your future self to invest in relationships, add motivation to follow through by making appointments with people in your life. You’ll be much more likely to make the call when you have a lot to lose by bailing.
Since he can’t find balance, Tim creates it. Be like Tim and stop trusting your future self. Make it less likely that you’ll sabotage what’s important to you by putting everything in the calendar, paying for it in advance, and committing to people ahead of time.
Hi, I’m Michael. Thanks for reading this article!
It represents day 24 of my current 30-day writing project. If you enjoyed it, you may also like to read: “To Accomplish Your Goals, Do Something Insignificant Right Now”.
¹The sunk cost and Concorde effects: Are humans less rational than lower animals? (qtd. in Sunk Cost).