Show Notes
Eric asks: "I work full-time and I'm trying to grow my side hustle. It's so hard to find time to observe my team's work and make more calls. What's your secret when working full time?"
In this episode, Scott reveals why "I don't have time" is really a discipline issue, shares his own 8-11 PM time blocking experience while raising kids, and breaks down the micro-chunking technique most people miss. You'll learn why Ben Franklin was a time blocking advocate, how to defend your time ruthlessly, and why escape velocity requires protecting your calendar at all costs.
The bottom line: Block your time. Micro-chunk it. Defend it with honor. That's the only way out.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: https://scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. And the way that we do that is we answer questions from listeners who are brave enough and kind enough to submit their questions. And we can all learn from where they are stuck. And that's going to help us avoid getting stuck in the muddy mile. I'm your host, Scott Todd. And on today's show, we have a question from Eric. And Eric writes, I work a full-time job.
and I'm trying to grow my side hustle. We are trying to launch it and with work and everything, it's so hard to find the time to observe the work my team is doing and make more outgoing calls. What's your secret when working full time?
⁓ You know, Eric, one of the things that I'll say is that people often tell me like, my gosh, man, this is a time issue, time management issue. And it's not, it's not, I mean, it is at the top level, but when you dig deep and you go deeper, it's a discipline issue. It's self-discipline is what it comes down to. And really what it comes down to is not having a system in which you are blocking your time.
and making sure that your time to work on your business, is like you start a business to generate more income or to get out of your current job, you need to dedicate time and you need to protect that time at all costs. And the only way that I know how to do that is with time blocking. Now, time blocking is the only way that you're gonna be able to move.
from a corporate or a full-time job into your side hustle is by blocking the time, protecting it dearly, defending it at all cost, time for you to work on or in your business. And the way that you're gonna do that is you're going to identify when you're available, you're gonna put it on the calendar, you're going to schedule dates with yourself, not dinner dates, maybe it's a dinner date.
but you're gonna block off your time. And when I was in your situation, what I did was I had a time block from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. where that was for the business. ⁓ Look, I was tired. You're probably tired too. I had a wife. I have a wife. I had children at home. My children have grown today. I lived that experience. We had activities on the weekend with the children.
The way that you do this is you find those open spots, you block them and you say, hey, I'm gonna work for three hours on my business during this time. And then you sub time block. So it's not just about blocking three hours to work on your business or whatever your time is. It's about micromanaging that time even further. Give yourself 15 minutes to do this task, 30 minutes to do this, schedule it out.
And when you schedule it out, what you will find is that you just move from task to task in that time, but just to show up at eight o'clock and say, I don't know what I'm gonna do today. That doesn't work. And that's where the discipline breaks down. The discipline breaks down because you may block the time, but you don't go deeper and time block exactly what you're going to do in that time block. That's the discipline. And it's the only way that I know
to escape the velocity of that full-time job, to break the chains of it, you've got to time block it. So that is the action plan. Now, time blocking's not new. And a lot of people use it. A lot of people praise it. A lot of people don't know how to use it. In my opinion, they don't know how to use it exactly the way that I explained it to you, which is to microchunk the time. They just block the time, but you need to go granular and microchunk it.
And I'll tell you what, time blocking's been around forever. Even Ben Franklin was a big advocate of time blocking. You can go look up his books. can go look up, know, Project Gettys, not Gettysburg, Project Gutenberg. You can go look that up and you can go look at his time block because what he did there is he would wake up at, let's say, 5 a.m. He would, he has it out there, 5 a.m. to, I don't know, eat, pray, meditate.
journal, all of that stuff. And then from eight to noon, or it is actually, think eight to 11, it said work. Eight a.m. to 11, work. 11 to one, lunch and read. One to five, work. Five to six, dinner, family, music. He had music up there. Music, prayer, bed.
He even mapped out going to bed at 10 o'clock at night, rising again at 5 a.m. So you want to talk about somebody that followed a system of time blocking. Well, Franklin did it and lots of other people who are successful follow this same methodology. Why? Because it works. It works. So that is how you go from where you are today struggling to do it all.
to actually getting to the point that you get the traction and the movement in your business that you need to escape velocity, speed. All right, so that's the plan. So what are you gonna do? Well, you're going to protect your time at all cost. You're gonna be ruthless about it, okay? Don't let other people, maybe your wife, maybe your wife and children, but don't let other people
Take the time that you need for your business. Defend it. Defend it with honor. Okay, no, I'm working on my business at this time, so I'm not available. Don't let other people occupy your time, block your time, make you do things, arrange for you to go to places when you have other priorities. Okay, so you're gonna do that. You're not gonna let other people occupy your schedule, occupy your time.
you're gonna defend that thing to the hilt. And I promise you that when you do that, you do it for a week, you will see all of a sudden you'll get more traction, more energy, more enthusiasm about your business because you're following the system, you'll love it, and when you love it, you will propel. All right, that's what you're gonna do. And if you have a question, you are going to go to scotttodd.net.
forward slash ask, submit your question on there. And I look forward to helping you escape the muddy mile. I'll see you in our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. And the way that we do that is we answer questions from listeners who are brave enough and kind enough to submit their questions. And we can all learn from where they are stuck. And that's going to help us avoid getting stuck in the muddy mile. I'm your host, Scott Todd. And on today's show, we have a question from Eric. And Eric writes, I work a full-time job.
and I'm trying to grow my side hustle. We are trying to launch it and with work and everything, it's so hard to find the time to observe the work my team is doing and make more outgoing calls. What's your secret when working full time?
⁓ You know, Eric, one of the things that I'll say is that people often tell me like, my gosh, man, this is a time issue, time management issue. And it's not, it's not, I mean, it is at the top level, but when you dig deep and you go deeper, it's a discipline issue. It's self-discipline is what it comes down to. And really what it comes down to is not having a system in which you are blocking your time.
and making sure that your time to work on your business, is like you start a business to generate more income or to get out of your current job, you need to dedicate time and you need to protect that time at all costs. And the only way that I know how to do that is with time blocking. Now, time blocking is the only way that you're gonna be able to move.
from a corporate or a full-time job into your side hustle is by blocking the time, protecting it dearly, defending it at all cost, time for you to work on or in your business. And the way that you're gonna do that is you're going to identify when you're available, you're gonna put it on the calendar, you're going to schedule dates with yourself, not dinner dates, maybe it's a dinner date.
but you're gonna block off your time. And when I was in your situation, what I did was I had a time block from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. where that was for the business. ⁓ Look, I was tired. You're probably tired too. I had a wife. I have a wife. I had children at home. My children have grown today. I lived that experience. We had activities on the weekend with the children.
The way that you do this is you find those open spots, you block them and you say, hey, I'm gonna work for three hours on my business during this time. And then you sub time block. So it's not just about blocking three hours to work on your business or whatever your time is. It's about micromanaging that time even further. Give yourself 15 minutes to do this task, 30 minutes to do this, schedule it out.
And when you schedule it out, what you will find is that you just move from task to task in that time, but just to show up at eight o'clock and say, I don't know what I'm gonna do today. That doesn't work. And that's where the discipline breaks down. The discipline breaks down because you may block the time, but you don't go deeper and time block exactly what you're going to do in that time block. That's the discipline. And it's the only way that I know
to escape the velocity of that full-time job, to break the chains of it, you've got to time block it. So that is the action plan. Now, time blocking's not new. And a lot of people use it. A lot of people praise it. A lot of people don't know how to use it. In my opinion, they don't know how to use it exactly the way that I explained it to you, which is to microchunk the time. They just block the time, but you need to go granular and microchunk it.
And I'll tell you what, time blocking's been around forever. Even Ben Franklin was a big advocate of time blocking. You can go look up his books. can go look up, know, Project Gettys, not Gettysburg, Project Gutenberg. You can go look that up and you can go look at his time block because what he did there is he would wake up at, let's say, 5 a.m. He would, he has it out there, 5 a.m. to, I don't know, eat, pray, meditate.
journal, all of that stuff. And then from eight to noon, or it is actually, think eight to 11, it said work. Eight a.m. to 11, work. 11 to one, lunch and read. One to five, work. Five to six, dinner, family, music. He had music up there. Music, prayer, bed.
He even mapped out going to bed at 10 o'clock at night, rising again at 5 a.m. So you want to talk about somebody that followed a system of time blocking. Well, Franklin did it and lots of other people who are successful follow this same methodology. Why? Because it works. It works. So that is how you go from where you are today struggling to do it all.
to actually getting to the point that you get the traction and the movement in your business that you need to escape velocity, speed. All right, so that's the plan. So what are you gonna do? Well, you're going to protect your time at all cost. You're gonna be ruthless about it, okay? Don't let other people, maybe your wife, maybe your wife and children, but don't let other people
Take the time that you need for your business. Defend it. Defend it with honor. Okay, no, I'm working on my business at this time, so I'm not available. Don't let other people occupy your time, block your time, make you do things, arrange for you to go to places when you have other priorities. Okay, so you're gonna do that. You're not gonna let other people occupy your schedule, occupy your time.
you're gonna defend that thing to the hilt. And I promise you that when you do that, you do it for a week, you will see all of a sudden you'll get more traction, more energy, more enthusiasm about your business because you're following the system, you'll love it, and when you love it, you will propel. All right, that's what you're gonna do. And if you have a question, you are going to go to scotttodd.net.
forward slash ask, submit your question on there. And I look forward to helping you escape the muddy mile. I'll see you in our next episode.