Almost everyone wants to find ways to make more money. It’s only natural, as making more money may allow you to:
- Pay off debt
- Travel more
- Retire early
- Stop living paycheck to paycheck
- Afford the things you want in life
- And more!
One of the things that usually stops people from making more money is a lack of time. However, making more money and managing side hustles all depends on how badly you want it.
Some people may not want it as badly, and that’s fine. However, excuses won’t help you, so if you really want to make more money, then you will have to find more time in your day.
Just think about it: What do you think you could do with an extra 5-10 hours, or even more, each week?
Whether you want to transform your side hustle into your full-time career, want to make more money to tackle a financial goal, or something else, finding ways to make more money can completely change your life.
While I don’t side hustle any more, I am always looking for ways to increase my income. Before, I used to side hustle, work a full-time job, attend college, volunteer, and more. Now I mainly just focus on my business and managing a comfortable work-life balance.
Related:
- 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
- 10 Ways To Make Money Online From The Comfort of Your Home
- How I Earned Over $300,000 Blogging in 2015
- 11 Ways You’re Wasting Time And How To Change
Whatever it is that you are trying to balance, below are my tips for finding time to make more money.
Be realistic about how much time you have
Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, but others may be more limited than others. I understand that different situations can make a person quite busy. In the end you always need to be honest with yourself about how much available time you have to make more money.
You don’t want to run yourself ragged, forget about the things that truly matter in life, hurt your work performance, and more.
However, many people do have extra time in their days but just don’t realize it. For one week, I recommend keeping track of the time you spend on various tasks and see how much time you waste.
You’ll most likely be very surprised and learn how to find extra time to make money.
Wake up earlier
When I had my day job, I would usually wake up around one to two hours before I had to start getting ready for work. I would use this time to work on my side hustles, which included replying to emails, brainstorming ideas, managing my blog, finding mystery shops, and more.
Sometimes, waking up early was rough, but it was nice to get everything done before I went to work.
If you’re not a morning person, you can always try to fit in time before you go to bed. Often I would even work on my side hustles for a few hours before I went to bed.
If you spent two hours every day before you went to work, you could put 10 hours each week towards your side hustle ideas.
Related: 9 Tips To Wake Up Early & Why It Feels So Good
Get rid of time wasters
I want you to do something right now. Yes, right at this moment!
Take a moment and really think about how much time you waste watching TV and browsing social media.
According to Neilsen statistics, the average person in the U.S. spends 40 hours each week watching TV and movies. Plus, according to AdWeek, adults spend nearly two hours every day on social media. For teenagers the amount of time increases dramatically, to nearly 9 hours a day!
That is an enormous amount of time being wasted.
Use short gaps in your day wisely
Everyone has gaps in their day. This could be a gap before you have a meeting, a gap between your day job and night classes, a gap before you have to pick up the kids from school, or something else.
Maybe you have 30 minutes or an hour. Most people will just plunk down on the couch and watch TV or browse Facebook. However, you should find ways to wisely use these gaps in your.
Multitask correctly, if you can
You may want to try to multitask, as long as it does not decrease the quality of your work or cause you to waste more time.
Some examples of easy and productive multitasking include:
- While I am cooking a meal I work at the same time. Instead of just standing and making a meal, I use the little breaks I have to work. Or, I may even use that time to do short exercises, such as lunges, sit ups, squats, and more.
- If you are on the phone and on hold, you could do something while you are waiting, such as creating your grocery list, short workouts, finishing up an email, and more.
- Do all of your errands in one trip instead of spreading it over a longer period.
You do want to keep in mind that some people are good at multitasking, whereas some are not. There is proof that multitasking can actually result in you wasting time, because it can take time to get yourself ready every time you stop and start a task.
I recently read something that said whenever you start and stop a task you waste at least 25 minutes. That adds up over time!
Due to this, you will want to be smart when it comes to multitasking, and see what is and isn’t helping you.
Rethink your commute
This one may not be for everyone, as many people do need to drive to work. However, if you commute to work using something like a bus or train, then you might want to efficiently use this time by working on your side hustle jobs.
If your side hustle is something that you can do from your phone, laptop, or just with a piece of paper, then this can be a great time to brainstorm ideas and work on your side hustle.
Stay organized
Being organized can help you save time and make more money.
Here are some surprising statistics about being unorganized that I found from Simply Orderly:
- The average person spends 12 days per year looking for things they can’t find.
- Every day the average office worker spends 1.5 hours looking for things.
- In a recent survey, 55% of consumers stated they would save anywhere from 16 to 60 minutes a day if they were organized.
Strategically use your lunch time
When I had my day job, my lunch time was almost always used for my side hustles. I would often bring my lunch to work, which allowed me to save money on food and to use that whole hour for my side hustle ideas.
Right there, that’s five hours every week for side hustles, just by using your lunch hour.
What do you do to save time, so that you can make more money? What time management tips do you have to share?
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I have been debating whether to get up early or not in order to accomplish everything. The only thing that’s holding me back is that I need my sleep! I have my 4 year old at home so I need sleep in order to remain patient, lol. And I stay up late (midnight usually) working, which is later than I would like to already.
Definitely agree that being organised is so important!
Haha, I don’t know how people with children do it all. You guys are champs!
Power naps and coffee! 🙂
P.s I do squats when brushing my teeth, haha! Multi-tasking queens!
Haha I’ve done squats while curling my hair. It’s only ended badly one or two times…. haha!
Hahaha, you girls don’t wanna know what I do whilst brushing my teeth. Needless to say I’ve got multi-tasking down.
One counter-intuitive idea is related to #1 waking up early. If you wake up early an EXERCISE, you’ll find that you have more energy all day and can be far more productive.
Sure, the first couple weeks will be a disaster for anyone who never exercises, but once your body is used to it, it will generate energy instead of draining you.
Yes, definitely!
Agee if you know the exact amount of hours you can focus on side hustle is good, I tend to keep my week end free(except from september till june for work in the cafe) working on writing job during lunch or before bed:P
Awesome!
When we blogged on the side but still had full-time jobs, we would get up at 5:00 a.m. to write and stay up late. We also worked weekends! If you want to make it happen, you have to find the time somewhere. It was really hard for us because we still had small kids, but we made it work somehow.
Great job 🙂
Blogging is good money if you stick to it and at least write 1k words or better per blog post. Very little do most people know blogging can potentially make you a millionaire if you stick to an action plan for long term blogging success. You can certainly make more money than your day job and it’s also a great way of setting yourself up for future healthy retirement because you won’t have to worry about solely living on your pension check and social security alone.
Staying organized is SO important to finding time to make more money. You have to plan ahead and make time. There’s no other way!
Yes, definitely!
Great tips, Michelle! Working from home most days has been a massive time saver for me. Even though my commute is only 15-20 minutes each way, that time really adds up! Also, I spend a lot of time working on side hustles before work. I think the key is figuring out when you have the most extra energy for it. Evenings during the week don’t work as well for me!
Yes, that is very important. Working when you just don’t feel like it usually means that you won’t get anything done.
Finding ways to monetize what you like to do is important. For a lot of people, they seem to think hobbies and work have to be distinctly separate entities. Finding the overlap is a huge time saver and way more motivating, I think.
Yes, I agree!
Having the need to want it is key! I live with 3 other roommates and all of their free time goes into sleeping, eating, and watching TV. They do not see the need for additional money yet all three have student loans that they can be making payments to with extra side hustle money.
I like to do my work before I sleep as I am not a morning person and find myself more focused in the night.
Yes, I agree. If you want it badly enough, you’ll most likely be able to find the time 🙂
What’s your goal with side hustling? If you don’t mind sharing 🙂
What’s matched betting? I’ve seen a ton of UK bloggers talking about this now!
Wow! That’s insane.
Great idea!
You are full of good ideas! Keep ’em coming. Good list as some items are easy to change (wake up early!) and some are harder or take more commitment (cutting out the commute).
The Green Swan
Thanks!
Great list, Michelle! I’ve never been a morning person, so I love that you offered other ideas for us night owls! As a single mom with 3 kids, a full time job, and a side hustle, I have to make the most of every free minute. Those lunch hours add up!
Yes, lunch hours definitely add up!
Yes, I agree! For me, I do best thinking of ideas for my blog when I’m out for a hike or walking my dog. Whenever I feel like I can’t get work done, that’s what I like to do because of that 🙂
Whenever I have downtime, or sometimes even during my lunch hour, I will work on my blog. I wake up early before work and spend time planning my social media and work on posts and email while I’m at work in my free time.
Great use of time!