Tiger Time
Fence off untouchable blocks to build the future business your daily work never leaves room for.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 88%
Tiger Time is the practice of blocking off a few untouchable chunks of calendar each week to work on the highest-leverage projects that otherwise get deferred. During these blocks you defend the time like a tiger with her cubs — no meetings, no clients, no interruptions. Crucially, each block has a specific pre-assigned output, such as outlining a course or writing a promo email. It converts vague intentions to build the future business into scheduled, protected reality.
Origin
Porterfield created Tiger Time when she kept deferring the creation of her first digital course because client work always felt more pressing, realizing she'd never escape her one-on-one model unless she scheduled the escape.
Core principles
- 01The work that moves your business forward is rarely urgent, so it never gets scheduled.
- 02Protected time must be defended fiercely, like a tiger with her cubs.
- 03Scheduling it makes it real.
- 04Each block needs a specific, pre-decided output.
How to run it
- 1
Name the deferred priority
Identify the specific project that would move your business forward but never gets done because day-to-day work crowds it out.
- 2
Block untouchable time
Put a few chunks — two hours here, an hour there — into your calendar that nobody and nothing can penetrate.
Pro tip Start small if you're busy; even a few hours a week compounds.
- 3
Assign each block one output
Decide in advance exactly what each block produces, e.g. 'Tuesday 8am: outline the first course module.'
Pro tip Specificity prevents the block from dissolving into distraction.
- 4
Defend it relentlessly
Guard the time against clients and urgent requests as non-negotiable, because it is the only path out of the model that traps you.
Watch out If you let clients penetrate the block, you'll never transition to the business you actually want.
In the wild
Overloaded with social media clients, Porterfield reserved just a few weekly hours: two hours on Tuesday to outline her first digital course, one hour on Thursday to write a promo email, each block pre-assigned a concrete task.
→ Those protected hours let her gradually build and launch the course model that eventually generated millions.
Host Hala Taha applies the same principle: her executive team blocks all of Wednesday for focused work with no internal or external meetings allowed.
→ The team reliably gets weekly time on priorities instead of being consumed by other people's demands.
Common mistakes
Leaving the blocks open-ended
Reserving time without a specific pre-decided output invites drift. Each block needs one concrete deliverable to protect its value.
Letting clients penetrate the block
Treating Tiger Time as flexible when clients call means the future-building work never happens, keeping you locked in the old model.
Is it for you?
Best for
Service providers or employees trying to build a new offer or business model on the side.
Not ideal for
People whose problem is idea clarity rather than execution time.
From the transcript
“there were chunks of time in my calendar two hours here an hour there that no one could penetrate I was like a tiger with…”
“I'm never getting out of this business model and into what I want to do if I do not make the time schedule it to…”
From the episode
Amy Porterfield: How I Quit My Job and Built a Multi-Million Dollar Business Online, My Step-By-Step Blueprint
Amy Porterfield