Rules and Criteria for Time, Treasure, Talent and Testimony
Pre-decide categorical rules so individual requests never get individual deliberation.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 85%
Rather than adjudicating each request, you pre-commit to rules and let the rules do the refusing. Claire runs rules like 'no more boards' and a travel rule keyed to her daughter's last year at home. The four-currency taxonomy — time, treasure, talent, testimony — sharpens this, because each is a different ask with different criteria. Time is hours; treasure is capital; testimony is an endorsement, quote or introduction; talent is a compressed application of specific expertise that costs minutes because you already know the answer. Criteria decide the exception: is it important to Stripe, is it a meaningful personal connection, can I bundle it into travel I'm already doing, can I control when it happens? A rule stated categorically — 'I have a policy of saying no to X until I've done A, B and C' — is also socially unarguable, which is precisely why it works.
Origin
Extracted from The Tim Ferriss Show — Claire builds rules to stop herself saying yes; the time/treasure/talent formulation came from a colleague, with 'testimony' added by someone facilitating a criteria workshop.
Core principles
- 01A rule is a device that stops you saying yes.
- 02Pre-decided policy beats case-by-case willpower.
- 03People can't argue with a categorical rule the way they argue with a judgment.
- 04There are four currencies being asked for, and each needs its own criteria.
- 05Bundling and timing control convert an impossible yes into a workable one.
How to run it
- 1
Identify the recurring request categories
Look for what repeats: boards, travel, conference panels, fundraising meetings, investment pitches, advice calls.
- 2
Write one categorical rule per category
Make it absolute and stateable: no more boards; no travel unless it meets these criteria.
Pro tip The categorical form — 'I have a policy of saying no to X until I've done A, B and C' — is unarguable and sounds sane to the asker.
- 3
Define the criteria that let exceptions through
Write down what earns a yes: strategic importance, a meaningful personal connection, or a cause on your explicit list.
Pro tip Some people run a single-axis criterion — if it isn't climate, it's a no. Simpler is easier to hold.
- 4
Classify the ask into its currency
Work out whether they want your time, your money, your endorsement, or your expertise — the answers differ.
Pro tip Talent is often the cheapest yes: reviewing a press release or turning a candidate profile into three-to-five interview questions costs minutes.
Watch out Talent still consumes time — count it honestly rather than pretending it's free.
- 5
Set a fixed amount for the small treasure asks
For friends' charitable causes without reputational risk, set a standing figure and give it sight unseen; anything larger goes to your named causes only.
Pro tip The universe of friends who will ask is naturally limited, which makes the fixed amount affordable.
- 6
Test for friction reduction before refusing
Ask whether you can bundle it with travel you're already doing and whether you control the timing. Both yeses can convert a no into a slow yes.
Pro tip 'Can I do this next year?' is a legitimate and often accepted answer.
- 7
Give the fast no, with the rule as the reason
When the probability is low, decline immediately and say why — the rule, not a judgment of them.
Watch out Persistent askers will find the crack in a soft no; the rule needs to be stated plainly.
In the wild
Claire's travel rule is a default no while her daughter is at home. Stripe, for whom she still works part-time, said the most valuable thing she could do was attend Slush in Helsinki. That cleared the 'important to Stripe' criterion, so she went — and met a large number of founders. The rule didn't prevent the trip; it forced the trip to justify itself against a stated criterion.
→ One high-value trip taken deliberately, instead of a calendar full of trips accepted reflexively.
A wealthy friend of Tim's runs a two-tier charitable policy. Any friend's cause with no reputational risk — a buddy climbing Kilimanjaro for prostate cancer with a GoFundMe — gets 5K, sight unseen, no meeting, no deliberation. Anything beyond that is confined to two or three named focus areas, and everything outside those areas is simply not entertained.
→ Generosity is preserved and deliberation is eliminated; no ask consumes more than the decision to apply the rule.
Common mistakes
Rules with no exception criteria
An absolute rule with no defined exception path either breaks under the first persuasive ask or costs you genuinely valuable opportunities.
Treating talent asks as free
'It only takes me five minutes' still consumes attention and accumulates. Count it as time even when it's compressed by expertise.
Letting persistence override the rule
A talented, persistent founder will offer a smaller version of the ask — 'just be an observer, just come once.' That's how a categorical rule quietly becomes a standing commitment.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone with heavy inbound — investors, operators, advisors, public figures — who wants to reduce decision load and give fast, honest answers.
Not ideal for
Someone early in a career who still benefits from optionality and serendipitous yeses.
From the transcript
“I make rules by the way to stop myself from saying yes to stuff I make rules”
“it's Time treasure talent but there's another one that's like testimony”
“categorically I have a policy of saying no to X until I've a b and c”
From the episode
#724: Claire Hughes Johnson — How to Take Responsibility for Your Life, Create Rules That Work, Stop Being a Victim, Set Strong Boundaries, and More