Time Management – The Habit That Changed Everything for Me

“You can do anything, but not everything.” — David Allen

I started building my escape route while I was working a full time job… a job that was not only demanding but also exhausting.

I ran on back-to-back meetings, global calls at odd hours, and fire drills that had no warning.

You know the drill.

It felt like the day ended before it began.

But, I still managed to build a podcast that hit global charts.

I still managed to grow a profitable affiliate marketing business.

Not because I had more hours.

But because I knew how to find them.

It didn’t happen from day one.

I struggled, messed it up, burnt myself out multiple times before restarting..

And after multiple iterations, I found things that worked.

If you’re building a side hustle while juggling a full-time job (and maybe parenting, relationships, or a Netflix queue), you don’t need more time.

You need better time management.

And today, I want to show you the exact framework that helped me uncover 10–12 hidden hours every week, without burning out.

Why Most Time Management Advice Doesn’t Work

Productivity hacks are everywhere.

Calendar blocking. Pomodoro timers. Wake up at 4 a.m. like a Navy SEAL.

But if you don’t know where your time is actually going, no hack will save you.

That’s why before you start “managing” time, you need to audit it.

How to Run a Time Audit That Works (Without Overwhelm)

Let me break it down…

A time audit is simply observing and logging how you spend your time—without judgment.

You’re not trying to fix anything yet.

You’re just trying to see it.

Here’s how I do it (and how I coach others to do it too):

Step 1: Pick 3 Days to Track

Choose 3 typical workdays. Not during vacation or crunch week.

If you want bonus clarity, add a weekend day too.

Step 2: Track Your Time in 30-Minute Chunks

Use a notes app, spreadsheet, or even pen and paper.

Every 30 minutes, jot down what you were doing.

Be honest.

“Scrolled LinkedIn while telling myself I was researching” counts.

“Pretended to write but just checked analytics” counts.

This is for your eyes only.

Step 3: Categorize Your Activities

At the end of each day, sort your time into buckets:

• Focused Work (deep creation, strategy, actual content building)
• Shallow Work (emails, admin, browsing, editing)
• Meetings & Calls
• Personal/Family
• Distraction/Idle (doomscrolling, mindless watching, multitasking)

Once you see your week laid out, something shifts.

You realize the 15-minute scrolls add up to hours.

You notice you’re spending more time tweaking your logo than writing posts.

That awareness?

It’s gold.

And it’s the first step to reclaiming your time.

How I Made It Work While in Corporate

I’ll be honest.

When I first started my podcast, I had no clue how to make time for it.

I was in a leadership role, managing a global team, and my calendar looked like someone had lost a Tetris game on it.

But after running my first time audit, here’s what I noticed:

• I was spending 90+ minutes every day reacting to Slack and email.
• I said “yes” to every meeting invite out of guilt or habit.
• I multitasked during important tasks – writing show notes while answering texts.

The fix wasn’t dramatic.

I didn’t quit my job or pull all-nighters.

Instead, I made these 3 small but powerful shifts:

1. Morning Focus Hours

I blocked 7:00–8:30 a.m. thrice a week for deep work only—no meetings, no calls.

That became sacred podcast-building time.

Cal Newport calls this “Deep Work”—and it’s how real progress happens.

(Highly recommend his book Deep Work if you haven’t read it yet.)

2. Batching Content Tasks

Instead of switching between recording, editing, and writing all week, I started batching.

Mondays became script and outline days.

Fridays were recording days.

Sundays were for planning the next week’s content.

This saved me hours in mental switching.

3. No-Meeting Zones

I started blocking time on my corporate calendar as “focus blocks”.

And guess what?

No one questioned it.

People respect your boundaries when you respect them first.

These micro changes added up to over 10 hours a week I could now use for building my side hustle—with clarity and focus.

Ask This Question Every Sunday

Every Sunday night, I ask myself one simple question:

“What’s the highest-impact use of my time this week?”

Not the most urgent.

Not the most popular.

The most meaningful for my goals.

Sometimes, it’s recording a podcast episode.

Sometimes, it’s emailing one person who might become a future collaborator.

That question brings focus.

And focus brings growth.

3 Quick Wins to Boost Productivity This Week

If you’re overwhelmed and want to get some quick wins, try one of these:

1. Cancel One Useless Meeting

Ask: “Do I really need to be there?”

Most of the time, you don’t.

2. Create a ‘No-Scroll’ Hour

Choose one hour a day where you don’t touch social media or notifications.

Use it to create, not consume.

3. Use the ‘One Big Thing’ Rule

Each day, write down one thing that’ll move your side hustle forward.

Then get it done before lunch.

This one habit alone helped me go from stuck to steady progress every week.

Books That Will Change How You See Time

If you’re serious about mastering time management, I recommend:

• 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam — reminds you that you do have time; it’s just hidden in plain sight.
• Deep Work by Cal Newport — essential reading if you want to build anything meaningful in this distracted world.
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown — a powerful guide to doing less, but better.

These aren’t just productivity books.

They’re permission slips to live with intention.

Over to You Now

You’re not lazy.

You’re not bad at time management.

You’ve just never been shown how to see your time clearly.

Start with a 3-day time audit.

Then shift just one habit this week.

Don’t wait for the perfect moment.

Build in the messy middle.

Because your side hustle deserves more than your leftovers.

And so do you.

Recommended Newsletters

Here are few newsletters that I would recommend that you sign up to if you are interested in learning the art of running a side-hustle:

• Write, Build, Scale
• Why we buy
• The Book Bub
• The Stacked Marketer
• The Growth Bulletin
• Unconventional Productivity for Online Business Owners
• Side Hustle Weekly
• The Affiliate Guy
• I will teach you to be rich
• How Brands win
• For the Interested
• Send and Grow

Sign up to these and follow them. You will get a lot of information and content for your blog posts, podcasts and even social media posts.

I will share more such ideas in my future newsletters.

I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.

So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://thegrowthcreator.com to subscribe to it for FREE!

What am I reading?

I absolutely love books and I read a lot.

In fact, I don’t just read a lot, but I also take notes on every book that I read.

I have pages and pages of information in my Notion Second Brain, so that I can find them and use them when ever I need.

I have added some of the newest books that I have been reading, to the Amazon store, so you might want to check it out.

Want to know more about the books I read. You can check it out here!

That’s it for this week!

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