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Grow Your Business At Your Day Job
This post is Part 9 of my 12 Days of Consistent Content Content Challenge for 2019. Click here to check out Part 8: 5 Reasons All Online Businesses Need Blog Content
Can you really build a successful, scaleable, passive income-earning business in just an hour a day?
Yes, you can.
You can get a lot done in an hour, and very often, there is only an hour left in your day to build your business.
And that hour, very often takes place during your lunch hour at your 9-5.
Back when I was still working my 8-5 office job, my lunch hour was one of the few times that I knew I could get stuff done.
It was never the highest, high-level work, but it was still very important that I took that time to get down to work on the things that would help my business grow, especially since I had very little free time (and free energy) to work during other times of day.
When it comes to getting work done at your lunch hour, not all offices have the same rules for just how much you can isolate yourself, but I encourage you to take any and every opportunity to allow yourself to spend that lunch hour alone, so you can get as much work done as possible.
This blog post is slit into two sections. The first section focuses on how to take advantage of what you need done, while the second section focuses on how to ensure that your environment at work allows you to accomplish whatever you need to do.
For What You’re Working On:
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Don’t Forget Your Personal Computer
Sure, there is a lot of stuff you can get done by writing things by hand in a notebook, or on a piece of paper, but you should just bring your laptop with you. Don’t have a laptop bag? I featured a few of my favorites in my 2018 Gift Guide.
I definitely made sure when I was working during my lunch hour, to keep my personal work on my personal computer. Not only did it ensure that my files were always accessible when I needed them, but it took away any concerns about using company technology to get my work done.
It wouldn’t have been a problem, but I still wanted to make sure that I always kept my work for my business on my own computer.
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Have A Plan
The beginning of your lunch hour is not the time to sit in front of your computer and ask yourself what you should be doing.
That takes time, and no matter how long your lunch hour is, that time is finite.
You need to do that planning in advance.
Every week, you need to go into it knowing what you want to accomplish, and then you decide what of those things you are going to take care of during your lunch break.
Are you going to be writing blog posts? Instagram captions? Editing videos? Doing lives?
Whatever it is that you want to do, have that plan in place in advance. Determine the things that you can do to fill your lunch hour, and then once you get to that time, you will know exactly what it is you need to do, and get straight down to work.
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Get Organized
Along with your lunch hour not being the time to sit and ask yourself, “Hey, what should I be doing?” It’s also not the time to ask, “Hey, where is that file I need in order to finish X, Y, and Z?”
Before you leave for work, take a couple minutes (or the night before, if you really have no time between waking up and getting out the door), to A, take into account everything that you are going to be getting done during your lunch break, and B, that you have everything open and ready for you as soon as you clock out for lunch.
Have those files open, so you’re not wasting time waiting for programs to load or to try to find what it is that you need.
You want to have everything open and in front of you, so you can dive right in.
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Pick One Priority (Everything Else Is Gravy)
Your lunch hour is not the time to plan to do 15 things. You only have 60 minutes (or even less, depending on your job’s rules about lunch).
You need to have one priority, one thing that you know you can accomplish in 60 minutes. And with that, it means taking your big projects and breaking them down into bite-size pieces that you can accomplish in a hour.
Say you’re putting together a 5-part blog post series, and you’re using your lunch hour to knock them out. Monday, you focus on starting and finishing blog post one, Tuesday for blog post two, and so on.
And if you finish your one priority task early, you can either move on to the next day’s task to get ahead, or respond to comments on social media, or maybe take 15 minutes to get some reading or learning in, whatever you want.
Just remember to keep it to one (or two, at most) priorities, because the sense of accomplishment you get by actually completing the task you’re working on is one of those awesome mental rushes that will propel you into knocking out the rest of the things you’re looking to accomplish.
And that’s how you build a business in an hour a day.
For Working At Work:
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Make It Known That You Are Unavailable
When it comes to making the most out of your time, you are going to have to assert yourself a bit with your coworkers.
If you were someone who used to hang out in the break room, or leave the office to go pick up lunch with your colleagues, you’re going to have to let them know that that’s not happening any more.
You have officially re-prioritized your lunch break, and I can tell you, there will be people who you work with who don’t understand what it is you’re working on.
And they will try to distract you.
Be kind, but be firm, and tell them you’re not available right now.
Shut your office door, if you have one. Put your office phone on Do Not Disturb. Tell people that you are not available for anything short of the building being on fire. Find somewhere at work where you know you won’t be disturbed. Eat in your car, if you have to.
If you’re off the clock, it means you’re off the clock.
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Make Your Lunch Ahead Of Time (Or Order In)
Your lunch break is no longer the time to be leaving to go pick up some food, or to be making lunch.
If you can sneak away before you clock out to throw your food in the microwave, you should go ahead and start doing that.
If you’re someone who usually goes out for lunch, start utilizing apps like DoorDash, UberEats, and Seamless, to have your food delivered to your workplace, so you don’t have to waste time going out and getting it.
From a savings standpoint, I recommend making such. It costs less, and tends to be a little more environmentally friendly
Working During Your Lunch Hour: Work Where You Won’t Be Distracted
I touched on this above, but you want to make sure that you’re not trying to get work done where you know you’re going to be distracted.
If that means avoiding the break room like the plague, then you need to avoid the break room like the plague.
If you’re lucky enough to have an office of your own, shut the door. Even if you share an office with a couple people, let them know that you’re going to be working during lunch, and of course they can come in if they need something, but you’re not going to have time to hang out and shoot the shit once you clock out.
Hell, if you have to, hunker down in your car and work as close as you can to the wifi.
Just make sure that whatever corner of your office you find that you can work in, you know you won’t be disturbed.
For those of you who work during your lunch hour, what do you do to ensure that you have the time and space to accomplish your goals? Join my free Facebook community, Consistent Content Creators, and share your answer!
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