Susie Moore
Career coach Susie Moore likes to say that we all have 24 hours in a day.
"We're all overworked, over-scheduled, we want to work out, we have to manage our day job, we want to have a social life, we have families to take care of, so everyone is very, very busy," said the author of "What If It Does Work Out?" in a Facebook Live interview with Business Insider. "That is true."
However, she continued, "We all have 24 hours in a day. I joke, you know, you, me, Oprah. Everybody has 24 hours in a day."
In 2013, Moore left a sales job where she was earning $500,000 a year at age 30 in order to start her own business as a life coach, after building up her company on the side, to the point where she was earning up to $4,000 a month. Now, she encourages others to pursue entrepreneurship through Side Hustle Academy.
"I'm obsessed with productivity hacks and I always think about what I can do to save time, what I can do to be efficient," she told Business Insider. She shared some of her own favorite ways to find more time in the day:
Say 'no.' A lot.
One of Moore's personal favorite ways to save time is by saying "no."
"Warren Buffett actually said the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people say no — a lot," she said. "By saying no to what doesn't serve you, saying no to that brunch date, saying no to that project you don't need to pick up, saying no to picking up your sister's kids because you really can't do it because you need to focus on something else that's more important to you, then that is what you have to do. Really learning to say no and turn things down opens up magical hours in your week, every single week."
Know your 'golden hours.'
Moore calls the most productive hours of your day your "golden hours" — and they're highly individual, although they typically tend to be in the morning. Reserve your golden hours for your "hustle time," said Moore. "For me it's kind of that 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. sweet spot where I can just write like a machine — create a lot of content, do my best work, and then in the afternoons, it would take me probably four to five hours to do the work that I really laser in on in the morning. So by understanding and working with your golden hours, you can get much more done because you maximize your brainpower when it's at its highest capacity."
Take advantage of your smartphone.
"Our phone gives us access to everything — we're completely spoiled on what we can do," Moore said. "You can do small things like when you're waiting for a subway or waiting in line at the bank, you can make phone calls. You can pay your bills. So when you use your wait time well, your commute time well, you find these pockets of time: A friend is late meeting you, your meeting is running late. You can get things done very quickly in those pockets of time that free you up for bigger, more important tasks later."
