Have you ever known someone to get all things done, without actually working more than 10 or 20 hours per week? Or someone who knew how to work less and make more money? How do I make money work for me?

Research from Stanford suggests that productivity per hour declines sharply as the work week exceeds 50 hours. The productivity drops off drastically after 55 hours there’s no point in working any more.

“You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.”- Tony Morgan.

As a part-time creative, and scientific researcher, I have realized that having a specific pointer in my head right in the morning helps me manage my time better. Strategic slacking and then adding more tasks in the day enables people to dramatically increase both the quality of their work and the pleasure they get from their work. It tends to increase their overall productivity because they don’t think or work or create at the same rate throughout the day.

As mentioned in a book called ‘Hyperfocus’, written by Chris Bailey, “by focusing deeply on just one important thing at a time- hyper-focusing – we become the most productive version of ourselves.”

Now let’s break this down strategically to work less and make more money, so that it fits an overall schedule for everyone (no matter what field and what level of work you’re into).

7 Ways On How Do I Make Money Work For Me?

In this section, we shall highlight some of the major ways you can inculcate in your schedule to achieve more and still have time for yourself. This will help you get in the ‘work less and make more money’ state of mind.

1. Designate Time for Think Work

Working at a standing desk, makes me focus much more than working while sitting at a desk. I found out about this trick from one of the computation PhD students from Argentina. She was constantly walking and promoting walking while working on her laptop, since most of her day would go typing on the caption. The exact definition of how to work less and earn more money.

While trying that, I realized that it helps me think even better. What I really do is put ,my phone in a do-not-disturb mode, close any unnecessary applications or anything that would create frictions in my work. Along with that, I play a focus sound track for working in the background, and I’m all set to work an entire day for 10-12 hours (including breaks). This shall be the first foundation of your ‘work less and make more money’ game plan.

2. Take breaks throughout the day

One of the recent surveys and studies suggest that extremely productive employees take about 17 minutes of break for every 52 minutes of work. I often follow the Pomodoro technique to keep sure I am completing most of my tasks off my daily checklist. This would increase my productivity to about 10-12 percent.

During my break time, I would often restrain from looking at a screen (either mobile or laptop). I usually ensure that I am energized during my breaks, so an interesting book, a peppy song, or a real lunch break, that is away from the computer table.

Another important thing to take note of here is your diet. I don’t need have more coffee to make sure you’re working more. In fact, when you pay attention to what goes in your diet, you tend to focus more and achieve more in lesser time than before

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3. Alter your afternoons to work less and live better

Now, when you start to work throughout the day more mindfully, you start noticing that your muscles, brain and body are not working at their 100% potential throughout the day. Your ability to maintain self discipline and focus, thereby also changes.

A bit lazier time of the day is your afternoons. This is when you probably feel the most lethargic, or have the most potential to procrastinate. A great way to tackle that is to use that time to complete more creative tasks, than the more tedious ones.

Prepare your day in such a way that the afternoons usually cover the lesser important tasks, so it doesn’t impact your overall day as such. This will help you to work less and earn more money or work less and live better.

4. Have a good game plan

What works for me is a good and achievable plan. When I have a deadline set for a particular task, I usually tend to work on it faster and more effectively. Thereby, scheduling is the real game changer for me. When we don’t do the same, our thoughts usually wander and we’re not able to achieve a lot from our time.

5. Outsource Your Work

Something that always kept me from having a 100% productive day was the mentality of “doing everything on my own.” This hyper independent behaviour, no matter how good it sounds, is actually a derogatory approach to being more productive. You can not be your best, achieving everything, everyday. Therefore, you need to outsource your work as much as possible, to whoever you think is correct.

This approach has two benefits, one, it will SAVE YOUR TIME. And the second, is that the person you’re outsourcing it to might be able to do your task in a much more efficient way.

6. Prioritise MITs On How Do I Make Money Work For Me?

Each day, make a list with only three items: the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Make at least one of them related to your 12 month goal.

The others might be a really big project that’s due, or something you’ve been procrastinating on. MITs are the most important tasks – ones that will gain you longer-term income or recognition. It’s best to do your MITs first, before you get interrupted by other things.

7. Embark on time management hacks

I realized that I tend to have multiple “white spaces” in your day. White or blank spaces usually mean that you have absolutely nothing to do in those moments. And I thoughts that these are the “wasted time periods” of your day. But actually, if you look deeper, these white spaces tend to build up on your thinking and working patterns.

You can manage these white spaces through time management tools, to gain more power on your time.

In all, finding a way on how do I make money work for me is more of a necessity in the generation we live in. The sooner you figure that out, the better your life will be. You should know where to spend your time, and that’s how you achieve more while working the same number of hours.