I tried a one week trial of Lifehack Tribe for a week. Here’s my thoughts about it.
The Lifehack Method by Demir & Carey Bentley is a productivity system and coaching service, for lack of a better term. More specifically:
- Lifehack Method is just a brand name as well as the general productivity system that Demir teaches.
- Lifehack Tribe is a big part of the ecosystem, it includes their online learning modules, weekly/monthly live group planning sessions, online forums, accountability buddy search and access to Focusmate.
- Lifehack Bootcamp is a 60-day intensive productivity coaching program.
Is Lifehack Method legitimate?
Yes, they are legitimate. I had no problems signing up for a $1 trial and then cancelling my ongoing subscription.
Yes, when you first end up on their mailing list of attend one of their free online webinars, their ads are super spammy and imply that you’re getting an extremely time-limited deal that really isn’t.
Are Demir and Carey genuine coaches?
Is Demir a genuine productivity coach? Based on his appearance in live videos, yes he seems genuine, and the videos he posts on YouTube are also somewhat useful, not just filtered clickbait that leaves you wanting more substance. His live responses to questions during video calls also surprised me a lot, he definitely came across as someone with significant experience and the ability to read into a questioner’s mindset accurately.
If I’m being honest, Demir strikes me as someone with slightly above average intelligence supposedly doing above average things due to hard work and having a system that works for him. Lifehack Method isn’t magical and revolutionary. It makes sense and probably works well for people who tend to be similar to him. My suspicion however is that the more intelligent you are, the more lacking and one-dimensional you’ll find Lifehack Method to be.
Carey on the other hand seems completely inauthentic, someone clearly focused on sales and promotion in the way they talk. The kind of person I wouldn’t trust a word of advice from without wondering what’s in it for her. Does this take away from Lifehack Method’s usefulness? Not really.
What are the big ideas behind Lifehack Method?
Planning and leveraged tasks
One of the big focuses in the Lifehack Method is planning your week, and in particular making sure you get your “leveraged” tasks done. Leveraging just means doing what’s most important and propels you forward. Demir’s practical take on the idea of exponential growth through habits is to spend 4 hours a week prioritizing what makes your life 1% easier or better.
Examples of leveraged tasks for me could be:
- Spending 1 hour a week for several weeks to get acquainted with more gym exercises, with the intention of reducing the time it takes to go through my routine and improving how hard I push myself.
- Spend a few hours with nutritional planning (or perhaps getting feedback from a nutritionist), then setting up all of my regular grocery shopping online and delivered, probably saving me 1-2 hours a week while improving my eating, decreasing my cheat days with takeaways, and overall saving me money despite the cost of deliveries.
- Reading non-fiction. This might not have guaranteed outcomes but the odds are, if I read for a few hours a week, at some point I’ll come across some knowledge or ideas that lead to a critical improvement in my lifestyle.
- Upskilling myself professionally.
Group accountability
Another big theme in the Lifehack ecosystem is group accountability. Lifehack Tribe runs scheduled planning sessions over Zoom. It’s much like being part of a gym group, if you show up then you know you’re going to get things done as everyone else is doing it and you don’t want to be the odd one out. Lifehack Tribe membership also includes a Focusmate subscription. Focusmate is kind of like an online study/accountability buddy thing where you book a session with someone, you each state your intentions for that session then each do your thing in silence and report back at the end of the session.
Lifehack also has several learning modules, which I didn’t really go through, but some of it is general self-help content you could find elsewhere regarding growth mindset and obstacles.
Practical work tips
A lot of the regular and new content revolves around practical tips for certain workflows, for example how to use Asana effectively, how to cut down on email overload, how to use team communication apps without getting distracted, etc. It’s good that this information is specific and grounded, but at the same time it also highlights what I mean by how the Lifehack Method is a semi-structured mish-mash of things that Demir has made work for him through arbitrary effort and experience rather than any profound insight.
Is Lifehack Tribe worth US$85/mo?
Lifehack Tribe membership is not expensive compared to other productivity system memberships. I believe it would work for some people, but I decided not to try a paid subscription for longer simply because the group setting is the most attractive part of the package, yet all the calls are at super awkward times for me being in a very different timezone from the US.
In conclusion, I think the Lifehack Method could be practical for some people, it’s not a particularly brilliant system (not that it needs to be to be worth the money), and there’s no risk to trying it for a week. Also, I was pretty busy during the week of the trial, so there may well have been some powerful content in the learning modules that I didn’t look into but were alluded to multiple times.
INTP things 