One of the key objections I often hear about starting a side hustle (or growing your career for that matter) is “I don’t have the time.”
I don’t buy that.
Very few people literally “don’t have the time.”
What most who say this mean is “I don’t want to make the time.”
And to me, that’s a money excuse.
Of course, that’s their choice. They decide what to do with their time and will live with the results.
But don’t whine and say it can’t be done. It can be done. I know because I did it.
Several times throughout my life, even though I was very busy, I made the time to work on a side hustle to help us get where we wanted to be.
So for those who would like a side hustle and think you just “don’t have the time for it”, I’m going to offer you the ten following ideas for finding that time:
1. Get up earlier.
Yes, it will mean less sleep (probably) and you’ll live through it. After all, if you want to eventually live like no one else (i.e. become financially independent at a relatively young age) then for a while you need to live like no one else. And getting a little less sleep might be part of the “cost” to you.
I’ve already talked about how getting up early can make you wealthy. Using that extra morning time to work on a side hustle is one great example of that.
Just think what you could accomplish with 365 extra, focused hours in a year! I’m guessing you could come up with an idea, get it launched, and begin earning some money with time to spare.
2. Stay up later.
The same as #1 but on the other end of the day.
This is what I did when I had both my freelance writing business.
I would write, send out my query letters to magazines (in those days it was all by snail mail), invoice, etc. all after my family went to bed. I was up until 1 am to 2 am for at least a couple nights every week. But I was able to build my business and ultimately pay off my mortgage, so it was worth it to me.
All this extra work late-night work was in addition to having a pretty demanding career, being involved in church and volunteer activities, caring for the family and our home, taking vacations, and so forth.
Yes, you have to want it badly, but it can be done.
3. Watch less TV.
The average American spends five hours a day on TV.
I don’t even know where to start with that number.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably “below average” and “only” spend 3 hours a day watching TV. Or even two. That’s still a TON of time that could shift from the “mindless” category to the “improve my life” category.
Even if you move from three hours a day to one hour, that’s a lot of time you can redeem.
And what do you miss? Another episode of Game of Thrones? Hope you enjoy it because it’s costing you years of extra work since it’s slowing down your march to financial independence.
In addition to pure entertainment, two TV programs that I cut out are 1) news and 2) sports.
The news is just pure insanity these days and I think for the average person it creates more harm than good. What good does it do to get all frustrated and up in arms about something you can do nothing about? If you don’t want to take my word for how negatively the news can impact you, consider these three reasons why you should stop watching the news.
As for sports, I’ve narrowed down what I’m really interested in and have ignored the rest. And even when I do “watch” I either 1) DVR the games and fast forward to the action (i.e. goals in soccer) or 2) have the game on in my browser while I work on something else on my computer (so I can get two things done at once. If the game gets too noisy, I pause it, focus on work, and come back to the game later.)
4. Cut back on social media.
Check out this quote from Social Media Today:
Astonishingly, the average person will spend nearly two hours (approximately 116 minutes) on social media every day, which translates to a total of 5 years and 4 months spent over a lifetime. Even more, time spent on social is only expected to increase as platforms develop.
Can we say “huge time suck”?
This stuff is 1) addicting and 2) mostly a huge waste of time.
And if that doesn’t convince you, consider this: social media is likely making you miserable. This from Tim Ferriss:
“I’ve noticed the more reactive I feel, the more miserable I am,” Ferriss said. “The worse I treat myself, the worse I treat other people. Social media is just jet fuel for reactivity.”
If that sounds like you, he says, think about taking a social media fast and spending the first hour of your day not looking at your phone. Ferriss doesn’t use Facebook at all “for personal purposes,” and has been happier since he mostly unplugged from Twitter as well.
I know from first-hand experience. Facebook in particular can be a huge time drain for me and I have to watch it. It’s just so easy to open up that tab and check what’s going on for “just a minute”. I then move from family updates to financial articles to soccer news to cat videos. I look up and an hour is gone. So I set limits and only allow myself to look at it twice a day for 15 minutes each. If I wasn’t running online businesses, I’d probably close it all down.
You can do the same.
5. Work over your lunch hour.
This was a big one for me for many years.
I would bring my lunch to work and be at my desk anyway. I’d use that time to do something productive (write an article, brainstorm ideas, read a book, etc.)
It might only be 30 minutes a day (once you account for transition time, eating, the fact that I hardly ever took an hour anyway, etc.) but that time adds up over years and years.
6. Redeem lost time.
We all have “lost” time. Instead of just letting it slip by, what about making it productive?
In this particular case I’m referring mostly to lost time while you’re waiting. In that moment you can do something mindless or something productive. So why not the latter?
Here are a few examples of lost time:
- Waiting for a doctor’s appointment
- Waiting in the car to pick up your kids
- Waiting to pick up your spouse
- Waiting for your lunch appointment to show up
And on and on.
I try to redeem as much of this time as possible with these options:
- Going through my to-dos (planning I would do some other time) — learned this early in my career
- Take a book or magazine to read
- Take my journal and write down some notes
- Call someone I need to get back to
The point is you take your waiting time and turn it into productive time.
You could flip through a magazine or listen to the radio, but instead you make the time worth something.
7. Accomplish two things at once.
If you’re reading this, you probably do at least some of the following:
- Drive
- Mow your lawn/do yard work
- Work out
- Walk the neighborhood
While you’re doing those things, why not also work on your side hustle?
In particular, these are great times to educate yourself via audio with either audiobooks or podcasts.
So while driving to work, why not listen to an audio book on great marketing techniques?
While mowing the lawn, why not listen to a podcast on side hustle options and ideas?
When you walk the neighborhood, why not listen to an audio book listing time management and planning techniques?
The list could go on and on.
I see lots of guys at the gym reading in both the sauna and the hot tub. They are relaxing/recuperating and learning at the same time. When I ask, many of them are learning things they can apply to their businesses.
8. Weekends.
I know you don’t want to spend all your free time working, but let’s face facts — there’s at least some time you could use on the weekends to work on your side hustle.
Taking a tip from above, what about watching only one game instead of two on the weekend?
What about involving your family in the side hustle so you can enjoy weekend time while also building your business?
This is what I did when I was a soccer referee. Our games were always on the weekend and I worked every game with my son, so we were together doing something we both loved (and making money at it!)
I’m sure if you really inventory your time you could certainly come up with an extra hour or two every weekend.
9. Vacations.
I’m not talking about talking a cruise and then spending it working.
Let me suggest that you take your unused vacation days each year and use them to build your side business.
If you’re an average American, you don’t use all your vacation days.
In fact, here’s what Money magazine found on the issue:
Only 23% of workers surveyed said they used all of their paid time off in the last 12 months. The average U.S. worker leaves almost half of his or her vacation days on the table.
So instead of losing that time (or taking the money for it and working), how about using those days to work on your side hustle? If you do, before long you’ll be able to approve your own vacation days.
10. Holidays.
There’s always some free time during the holidays.
So instead of laying around watching Christmas Vacation for the tenth time or gorging yourself until you’re comatose, work on your side hustle.
I’m not saying that you work on Thanksgiving and miss the meal, but there are times that work such as:
The after-meal wind down when many often take an afternoon nap. It’s quiet and a great time for work.
Put your lap top on, well, your lap, while you watch a game and get some stuff done.
On Black Friday, get up with the crazies in your family who go out to shop. While they shop, you can grow your business.
I think you get the idea. There are pockets that can be taken advantage of if you look for them.
So, those are my ten suggestions.
And for the record, I’m not saying you have to (or even should) do all ten of these. Simply pick the ones that work for you and use them to grow your side business.
If you have some additional suggestions for finding side hustle time, please put them in the comments below.
P.S. For those who prefer a video version of this post, see the ESI Money YouTube channel.
When starting our blog last year, I was doing a lot of late night work. In this new year, I have been working to shift my focus to the early hours… getting up between 5-5:30am so I can use my more creative time and the beautiful morning hours for both reading/writing and gentle exercise/yoga/sunrise walks. I am already seeing the benefit and enjoying my quiet, pre-toddler wake-up time!
I do something similar. I wake up around 4am (have to be at work by 615). While my pre workout drink is kicking in I try and put it some productive work for 45 minutes or so. I work out. Get ready and head out the door. Once the kids are down I start plugging away again.
Hours at the beginning and end of the day have been huge for my website.
Yes! I use all these suggestions at one time or another. I’m also able to do some things during my 20-minute work commute most days since I carpool with my husband.
Cutting out social media was the best thing I ever did. I had so much more time and happiness. I have since had to add social media back in (far less than before) for my website’s sake.
The other one for us was cutting out some tv time. At one point we were just putting anything on for noise while we were surfing the web. Now we are pretty much tv free on the weekends so the wife can work on her side hustle and I can on mine. During the week we may watch 1-2 hours a night but I usually can squeeze some work in during that time.
Great suggestions! This past year, I’ve been waking up earlier to run before work and work on the blog. I go to bed at 9:30 every night! I totally agree that most people who say that there is not enough time in the day are wasting time on social media and watching too much tv.
I use the time on my commute to do most of my blog work. I couple it with a couple of late nights and it does the trick. Great list ESI. We all have time and just have to find it.
I went through your list and found that I still don’t have extra time! There is one thing I can do though, which is getting my husband to do more (so that he doesn’t waste all his time on the 10 things you mentioned!)
My big thing is making time for side hustle work when I’m at a good energy level. My energy ebbs and flows throughout the day, and I frequently don’t have energy to do something very brain-intensive when I’ve got the actual time to do it.
I am starting to realize that mornings in particular are good for me, so I’ll probably be waking up earlier, especially on the weekends.
I don’t get paid time off right now otherwise I’d be all about that life. As it is, it costs me several hundred dollars to take a full day off, and I’m not at a point where it’s more beneficial to do that.
My version of “redeem time” is to actually spend little bits of time throughout the day doing chores so that I don’t have to do as much later. 30 seconds to spare while my wife puts on her shoes (but I’m ready to go)? Sounds like a good time to empty part of the dishwasher. It sounds silly, but those sorts of things actually have made a semi-significant impact on at least my mental state to give me more focus later on those things.
Good list here.
I like 6 and 7 the best; although all of them are great. Some things we cannot avoid like waiting at the doctor’s office. I’ve been having to go more often. But during the time I wait, I read other blog posts, jot down ideas, and connect to social media…..to promote personal finance. 🙂
Finding time is a huge struggle for anything extra. I’ve been focusing more on my main hustle recently than anything on the side. Everytime I see TV statistics I’m shocked by the numbers, and then I overhear people at work talk about watching games all weekend and I guess it makes sense.
Any thoughts or heard any experiences with Zipcar, Turo, or one of those other “rent your car” companies? I’ve started using public transportation exclusively and would like to be able to make some side income off my (completely paid-off!) car that is currently sitting in the drive way not being used
Any pointed suggestions for someone working 50-60 hours a work with a young baby and another one coming?? Oh, and I already wake up at 4:30am to work out before getting into the office at 7am!!!
Items #3 to #7 work in almost any situation.
Great list, ESI. I especially liked your idea of involving the family in the side hustle during the weekend. We recently started flipping yard sale items and my kids have really enjoyed going to the yard sales, talking to people and inevitably being given free toys, books, etc. Creating side income while having fun and spending time with family is definitely a win-win.
There’s something going on in the middle of #3, looks like you meant to include a link?
Good list… the hardest thing for me (and probably many others) is not knowing where to start, given my particular skills, interests and limitations.
Fixed it. Thanks.
Awesome list ESI!
I quickly found out years ago that if I wanted to juggle many different ventures, sleep was going to be the first thing sacrificed. As long as my body gets around 5 – 6 hours of sleep, I am generally good to go for the day. Hopefully I can ease up on this as I get older, but for now I will take advantage of my youth while I can!
Thanks for the insights!
I have done #1, #5, #6 and #7 my entire life! It seemed like it was the only way to get everything done. #2 gets a little tougher as you get older, I just don’t have the energy I use to have.
And really people watch TV for 5 hours a day??
I agree! We can find surprising amounts of time when we take a look at our day-to-day routines. If TV or social media is hard to let go of, try using it as a reward at the end of a block of work time – and put a time limit on it!
Too much TV is the achilles heel for most. It seems that every single person in my office talks about the same TV shows. But its not just Game of Thrones, its like 10 different shows. When do they have time to watch all this stuff?
Definitely love these – my fav is working out and listening to a podcast about marketing, or my career!
Great list! My wife actually turned me on to podcasts, which can make car time productive.
One thing I like to do to increase my productivity is to constantly switch back and forth between tasks. I find that focusing on one task too long makes my concentration and work output decline dramatically. However, by switching every 30 minutes or so, I get more done (and of better quality).
It might not work for everyone (maybe it’s suited to my personality), but it works for me.
I love this list, especially the first two points! While sleep is important, sometimes you have to sacrifice it once in awhile to get ahead. You can sleep when you are……………financially independent!
Whatever you love, you will definitely have time for it. That is to say, when there is a will, there is a way. For instance, before I started my blog, I thought couldn’t have time to update it. But surprisingly, the blog has helped me greatly in the area of how to manage my time effectively.
ESI, you are so efficient! I love it. Thanks for the tips.
Ultimately, it’s about priorities and what is important to you. As it was pointed out earlier, you’ll always make time for things you truly love regardless of how busy you are/what is going on in your life. That’s the key for doing something for the long haul rather than half-hearted short-term efforts .
Are you sure we weren’t separated at birth? 😉
Fantastic words of wisdom, ESI E! I would have to challenge you on the staying up late part though. I’ve found that getting up early is a wonderful productivity booster, but that has to come with 8 hours of solid sleep preceding it. Plus, my wife cashes in early, and I’ve found it helpful for the relationship to retire at the same time. It’s the little things I guess.
Great advice on using vacation days to get shit done. I just used some PTO to bust it on our Airbnb project and man was that rewarding. And for fun, I’m reading the Elon Musk biography. Want to get inspired by an insanely hard worker? He’s your guy.
Great stuff.
Too many of us complain about not having enough time. We all have the same amount. It comes down to how we use it.
Gap downtime (e.g. flight delays, arriving early to pick up my daughter at school, at the doctor’s office etc.) and lunchtime have been easy wins for me.
Personally, I don’t want to multitask or sleep less because I get grumpy and less efficient.
There is always time. It just needs to be managed efficiently. Waking up 1 hour early every day provides 7 hours per week. That is almost a full day of work. Skip lunch and that is 5 more hours. So much can be accomplished with those two suggestions alone. That still allows you time to watch tv or have a social life in the evening.
No, no no. I respect the hell out of you guys, but telling people not to sleep is some seriously dangerous advice.
Sleep deprivation has serious long-term health consequences, including heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in America.
Lack of sleep also greatly exacerbates symptoms of anxiety and depression. 26% of all Americans suffer from the former, 18% by the latter.
Studies have also shown sleepy drivers to be as dangerous as drunk drivers. Accidents are the number one cause of death in young people specifically. More than 100,000 of those accidents are attributable to tired drivers.
The naval officers charged with multiple cases of negligent homicide in the recent USS McCain accident? So charged because they expected the knowingly deprived their crew of restful sleep.
And it’s ultimately self-defeating. Tired people have poor judgement and struggle to make good decisions. That’s not setting your hustles, side or main, up for success. I wouldn’t go full Tim Ferriss with it, but it isn’t smart to work tired.
Sacrificing sleep is sacrificing health. Sometimes it’s necessary and worth it (holler to all parents and poor folks everywhere), but it should never be thrown away casually.
Love y’all. There are great recommendations on this list. Please try all of them before you resort to #1 and #2.
I don’t think I said not to sleep, did I?
Nor did I say “live on 4 hours” (or whatever minimal number you want to name) of sleep.
I said you will likely sleep less. So will sleeping 7.5 hours a day versus 8 kill you? Or 7 instead of 8? Will it “deprive you of restful sleep”? Probably not even close.
Funny that a lot of people I know who went to University to put in four plus years of their time and take on massive debt to go into a career that they hate, and that pays so little that they have to take a part time job to make ends meet. This sounds like poor planning and lack of research, when my two boys were getting ready I made them interview ten people that worked in the fields they wanted to excel in. They interview both people starting out and people nearing the end of their careers and asked a lot of questions and the main one was job satisfaction and happiness because if you hate your job good luck going to it for forty years and not being bitter. If you love what you do the money will come, they work as tradesmen now and both make over six figures a year and love their job.
If your smart you specialize in what you do and get a great skillset, always improve and study at least half an hour a day in your field of expertise. I looked at a second job(okay a side hustle) but thought that in order to be really good at what you do it takes four to five years of dedication to get just competent. Would you let a surgeon with only a year of Medical training operate on you, no probably not. Would you let a side hustle represent you in a lawsuit, nope.
The point I am trying to make is be really good at what you do, life is short and all the side hustle time you use up you will never get back and if you choose well you will be well compensated for your skill.
Note: I am already FIRE, love my career see no reason to quit and I am actually taking more schooling to become even better at it,
Note: To prove my above points yesterday I got a $4/hr raise and a 2% increase to my pension plan, do not need it but I will take it, company knows I am dedicated to my craft and am a positive influence since I do not hate my job and carry resentment(believe me you can see those people within two hours of working with them).
I also find a lot of free time from being a lot more efficient. You’d be amazed how much time is wasted between tasks, or just sitting around because you don’t want to get around to doing whatever it is that you need to do.
That and writing when I’m on the toilet – maybe that’s why people say my writing is sh*t:)
I already get up at 4:30 for work, but I do work on my blog during lunch and on the commute to and from work (I take the bus) and I work after the kids go to bed as well. If you want it bad enough you have to prove it to yourself by carving out time any chance you get. I love the tip about listening to an audiobook or podcast during driving or mowing the lawn, I just recently started doing this and it’s great!
Good points and 0articularly the TV. I have time for things because I do not watch TV at all. I have noticed people saying they they do not gave time for this or that who then spend great gobs of time watching TV.
As for social media. J have seen reports that it often makes people very unhappy.