An entrepreneur who makes $135,000 a month shares 2 productivity hacks for balancing a side hustle with family life
Courtesy of Pat Flynn
Few people can cram more productivity into a day than Pat Flynn.
The entrepreneur runs "Smart Passive Income," a resource designed to help others run an online business and optimize it for passive income. The endeavor generates $135,000 a month on average for Flynn - some months it's in excess of $170,000 - and involves frequent blogging, podcasting, and public speaking.
On the side, this year he also published bestselling book "Will It Fly?," a guide to developing your own business ideas without wasting time and money, and he still manages to spend quality time with his wife and two children each day.
The ex-architect may have stumbled into the role of digital business entrepreneur by accident, but he's honed practical methods for making it work that could be adopted by anyone trying to maximize their side hustle - whether that's writing a book, learning a new skill, or starting a new small business.
At a recent roundtable for top independent authors who've published through Amazon's platform, Flynn revealed two crucial habits that help him balance at all: obsessive scheduling and setting boundaries.
"I've had to create a schedule for myself, and it's gotten more intricate with the more things that I'm doing," said Flynn. "If it doesn't get scheduled, it doesn't get done."
Flynn wrote his book between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., using the time his kids wake up as a hard deadline. He blocks out 30 minutes a day for social media - no more, no less.
Once, before they had kids, Flynn's wife caught him drifting while they were having a conversation, and she correctly called him out for thinking about work when he shouldn't have been.
"We were talking and she was like, 'Wait a second, you're thinking about your business right now,'" Flynn recalled. "I'm glad she caught me, especially before we had kids, because you really need to set those boundaries. The time boundary is very important."
At home, to ensure his family doesn't get short shrift, Flynn also sets a physical boundary: He does all of his work in his office. When he leaves his office, he "turns it off" and focuses on family time.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
- SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
- IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
- COVID lockdown-related school disruptions will continue to worsen students’ exam results into the 2030s: study
- India legend Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 ambassador
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market