The 1-Hour Side Hustle Formula

“Focus on being consistently good over occasionally great”

Stumbling through my twenties was the catalyst for finding my side hustle. I found writing through a pinch of pot-luck and a whole lot of necessity. It was a few years into the working world that I realised I needed an outlet for my mind. The trouble was, finding the time was tricky. The reality was between travel, cooking, cleaning and all the other life stuff, time was tight and energy was in short supply.

I’ve been working with small pockets of time here and there. I’ve had half an hour in the morning between getting ready and a cup of coffee and a small window of opportunity in the evening to churn out articles. Over the last 2 years, I’ve learnt to write when I didn’t feel like it, to adopt habits that help me focus and to build routines that allow me to churn out 5 articles a week.

I’ve realised a sobering reality about building a side hustle. You don’t need bags of time. In fact, you don’t need much time at all. By my calculations, you need 1 hour per day to achieve your side hustle dreams. Here are the 5 components of the 1-hour side hustle formula.

Environment (quality x 0.5% increase + praise + ‘bad day’ mechanisms) = 1-hour side hustle

1. Curate your environment

It’s no secret that the environment you exist in encourages certain behaviours. A kitchen full of snacks and naughty food packed to the rafters will encourage grazing meaning your diet goes out the window. Likewise, trying to build a side hustle in an overwhelming environment will make for hard work.

Here are some tips that work for me as a writer:

• A clutter-free desk.
• A notebook that is open.
• A cup of coffee or herbal tea.
• Have a stack of good books on hand.
• Wearing headphones with no sound on.

Your environment matters more than you might think. Behavioural Scientists will tell you if you want to encourage humans to behave in the way you want, you need to think about the environment they operate in. Like the fact that light encourages recovery and a greener environment yield better cognitive function. It’s science.

2. Work to quality, not to time

That might be confusing given the title of this article but bear with me. Working to time means rushing. It means getting as much as you can get done in an hour slot. That’s not what the 1-hour side hustle formula is. Instead, it’s about working to quality.

• The aim isn’t to churn out as much content as physically possible.
• The aim isn’t to create as many ads as humanly possible for your business.
• The aim isn’t to build a website in 1 hour.

The aim is to build with quality at the forefront of your mind. If there’s a toss-up between doing more or striving for a better quality of output, go for the quality. Working to quality means you learn to set your benchmark for yourself that you never waiver on.

3. 0.5% increase

People say 1% better each day. 1% can be quite daunting. Let’s say your side hustle is building a candle business (something I want to do) and you’re trying to increase your revenue each day, inevitably that can be quite tricky.

Likewise, if you’re a writer and you’re trying to increase your writing by 1% that’s a lot to expect in 1 hour per day. Instead, slash that figure in half.

Go for the 0.5%. 0.5% is adding an extra source to your writing to make it more credible. It’s searching for a few more minutes to gather more insights before you start tapping away. It’s spending just a minute extra re-reading your work. Set your standard and then go for 0.5% better every time.

4. Big yourself up

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been wanting to conquer this side hustle thing for years. Every year you’ve said that you’ll pursue your dreams and work on something alongside your work to make you feel more fulfilled. For years you’d beat yourself up because you always talk about it but never actually did anything about it.

For years you’d have the same conversation with yourself. If you’re reading an article like this I’m hoping you’ve finally cracked the code and you're pursuing your side hustle dreams, or at least on the way to. That’s incredible news and you should big yourself up about it.

Reflecting on the fact that you are finally building in the silence of your dreams does wonder for your motivation.

5. Learn to enjoy the bad

There’s a quote that is fast becoming my favourite. It’s one from a bloke that has recently given up self-help, a decision that I happen to respect immensely.

“You don’t build psychological resilience by feeling good all the time. You build psychological resilience by getting better at feeling bad.” — Mark Manson

The reality is some days are going to be a bowl of cold soup. Simple they will be horrendous. You’ll sit down with the ambition to change the world. You’ll be sat raring to go, ready to hit your 1 hour of focused work. But then, all of a sudden, you’ll lose it. For me, as a writer, it happens roughly every 7 days.

I’ll sit ready to tap away and I’ll forget what I was going to write. I’ll spend 10 minutes trying to conjure up a new plan. I’ll spend another 7 trying to find inspiration. Before I know it, my hour has passed and I’ve failed miserably. If you’re going to do this side hustle thing, you’re going to need some ways to fight the inevitable drivel days. Here are some things that save me on the awful days:

1. Polishing an article that is ready to go.
2. A half-baked article that needs more content.
3. A list of things that have annoyed me over the last 7 days.
4. Tricking myself by only committing to writing for 10 minutes.
5. Bookmarking interesting articles to read in moments of despair.

Have a backup plan for those inevitable bad days.

The 1-hour side hustle formula

The 1-hour side hustle formula is achievable, I’ve been living it for the last 2 years. You don’t need bags of time, you need to be focused and have mechanisms to counteract the bad days. The formula:

Environment (quality x 0.5% increase + praise + ‘bad day’ mechanisms) = 1-hour side hustle

Just because you have a 9–5 doesn't mean you can churn out articles like the pros. Utilising the 1-hour side hustle formula might well be just the ticket.

My debut book is now on sale for just £1.99. You can also get full access to my writing here.