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The 7 Habits of the 10 Hour Solopreneur

The 7 Habits of the 10 Hour Solopreneur

Yvonne Gerner
November 27, 2022

When you work 9-5 and build a business on the side of that, you need to be relentless with your time.

Bilde av Ruca Souza

Your side hustle can easily become another full-time job, eating away all the free time you have to spend on fun activities. Of course, your side hustle is fun, but what about relaxing, spending time with loved ones and taking care of your health?

A few weeks ago I launched into an experiment - could I achieve what I want with only 10 hours a week?

It quickly became clear that I needed a solid game plan.

Armed with pen and paper I sat down to outline my new side-business life. What emerged were a plan and 7 habits to make it stick.

Let’s dive in.

Habit 1: Know what to do when

You can easily spend your ten hours just reading and responding to emails and DMs. Unless that is your business, you won’t get far.

Start with writing down all the tasks you need to perform every week. Take one week and time yourself doing these tasks. This gives you an overview over how many hours you currently spend.

Grab a calendar and find out when you want to put in your hours. Maybe you just want to work in the weekends, maybe only a few hours every day before or after the 9-5. Or maybe it’s a combination of both. Note those blocks down.

And now the magic happens. Allocate your weekly tasks to your time blocks. When are you doing what? Make sure you put them in a logical order. There is no point in scheduling your tweets if you haven’t written them yet.

From now on, stick to that plan.

And remember, it’s not a life-long decision. You can change your plan as your life changes, and to accommodate events like vacations and seasonal holidays.

Habit 2: Have clear visions and goals

Without a vision and clear goals we are shooting into the void. Some arrows might hit, some might miss their goal. We wouldn’t know as we don’t even have a target.

Here are a few questions to contemplate:

What’s the long-term vision for your business?
How much money would you love to make?
How many clients can you easily serve?
How much content do you want or need to produce every week?

The answers will show you where to put your attention.

Habit 3: Say no often

People want help all the time. They also want free advice. And your co-worker loves to shuffle all their undesired tasks onto your plate.

If you want to stick to your 10 hours maximum you need to learn to say no. To all the distractions, the shiny objects and to procrastinating.

With a limited amount of time you don’t have the luxury to stare at your to-do list wondering what you should do next. And contemplating if you could do it tomorrow, or even better next week.

Your blocked hours come in handy here. If someone suggests a meeting that falls into your dedicated times, it’s easier to say “Sorry, I already have a thing”.

Habit 4: Be extremely productive

When you work, you work. You need to be laser focused. Dive in, do the thing, come up for air.

I rely on Notion to structure my day, especially as it all happens in the same space for me. The 9-5 and the side-hustle. Same computer, same workspace.

It helps to set time-limits per task with a timer. When the alarm goes off, move on to the next task.

But what if your time limit is not enough?

There are 2 reasons that could happen: your limit is too short for the amount of work or you got distracted.

Consider adjusting the time, and make sure no distractions enter your space.

Habit 5: Do not engage in shallow busyness

In my 9-5 I see this happening a lot. Some teams are worse than others, and we can spend a lot of time doing the same thing over and over. (Like changing the graphics for an event 3 times, hoping the new one will bring in more participants.)

Aim to engage in tasks that move your goals forward.

Ben Porter taught me these 3 questions to answer every day.

What 3 things are most important to do today?
How do these things help you move towards your goals for the year?
How will you celebrate moving towards your goals today?

You will review your goals every day, and discover easily if you are moving towards them, or just being busy for the sake of doing stuff.

Habit 6: Avoid distractions

Distractions can come in a variety of forms.

It can be the next idea you are having, or a shiny object. And maybe you need another course or read another book before you can have success?

Emails and messages are another form, or your family walking in and needing you.

My best tips: Leave your phone in the next room, then bolt the door.

Also, keep your office or your work space tidy. It’s so easy to get distracted by thoughts like “I should really go and dust over here”. Sorry, but it needs to wait. Have pen and paper ready to take notes of the ideas and tasks that pop into your head.

Inform your family members for how long you will be disappearing, so they know when they can knock on your door with coffee and cookies.

Habit 7: Have a positive outlook on life

Your beliefs are important.

If you believe you can make a living by only working 10 hours a week, of course you can. If you believe you need to give up all your spare time for your dream, then this will be your reality.

Our thoughts and beliefs are more powerful than we know. Whatever they are, they always prove us right.

So why not believe that you can become a millionaire by working this little?

Honestly, if you work 10 hours weekly, that’s 520 hours per year. To make a million that year you only have to charge an hourly rate of 2000 USD. What do you know that others will pay you that much for?

Ask yourself that question a lot, and work on the ideas that show up. You started on this journey for a reason - you know something that others don’t. And even if you only charge 200 USD you will still make 100k, and that is pretty sweet too.

TL;DR:

There you have it, 7 Habits of the 10-Hour-Solopreneur: