1304: Five Productivity Hacks to Make More Money Per Hour by Stephen Warley of Life Skills That Matter

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1304. Five Productivity Hacks to Make More Money Per Hour

[00:00:06] by Stephen Worley of LifeSkillsThatMatter.com. And I'm Dan. I am your host and I am here with you

[00:00:12] every single day helping you to optimize your business life. And today we're going to hear

[00:00:17] from Stephen Worley who's going to give us some tips on how to maximize that money that

[00:00:21] you make per hour. So let's hear from him now as we optimize your life.

[00:00:29] Five Productivity Hacks to Make More Money Per Hour by Stephen Worley of LifeSkillsThatMatter.com.

[00:00:36] Want to make more money per hour? Who doesn't? If you want to start thinking more like an

[00:00:41] entrepreneur, don't just focus on how to raise your annual salary. Instead,

[00:00:46] start figuring out how to make more money per hour. After all, your time is one of

[00:00:50] your most valuable assets. And understanding your true hourly rate, not just the hours you

[00:00:55] put in at the office, will help you assign a cost to all of your work related activities.

[00:01:00] It will help you look for ways to work more productively and to better assess opportunities

[00:01:05] in your career. All that extra effort you put into chasing after a promotion or a 5%

[00:01:10] bump in your annual pay actually drives down the value of your hourly rate today.

[00:01:15] You are working extra hours in the short term for delayed rewards in the future that

[00:01:19] you have no control over. When you work as an employee, someone else decides if you'll be rewarded

[00:01:24] with a promotion or a raise or new opportunities for your hard work. Entrepreneurs make that

[00:01:29] decision for themselves because they are constantly thinking about how to boost their short term

[00:01:34] hourly rate. When you are aware of your true hourly rate, you will value your time and the

[00:01:39] impact of your work very differently. First, let's help you calculate your hourly rate

[00:01:44] before I offer you some recommendations on how you can boost it.

[00:01:47] Calculating the hourly rate of your salary

[00:01:50] If you are a salaried employee, you can probably determine your weekly salary by checking your

[00:01:55] paycheck or by dividing your annual salary after taxes because that's your real take-home pay

[00:02:00] by 52 weeks. Here's an example. Say you make $50,000 a year after taxes.

[00:02:06] First, calculate your weekly salary. $50,000 annually divided by 52 weeks equals $961.54

[00:02:15] weekly salary. To calculate your hourly rate, divide your weekly salary by the average number of hours

[00:02:21] you work each week. Second, calculate your hourly rate. $961.54 weekly divided by 50 hours equals $19.23

[00:02:32] per hour. This calculation represents your hourly rate after taxes for the time you spend working

[00:02:38] in the office. Unfortunately, this isn't your true hourly rate. Calculating your true hourly

[00:02:44] rate. Most people only consider the number of hours they spend at the office when calculating

[00:02:49] their hourly rate. Entrepreneurs know the true cost of work, including all related and supporting

[00:02:54] activities. Think of it as your personal cost of good sold, COGS. To calculate your true

[00:03:00] hourly rate, you need to also include your average commuting time, the time you spend working at

[00:03:05] home, and even the time you think about work outside the office. Let's expand on our first

[00:03:10] example. Say your average daily commute to and from the office is one hour, and you spend an average

[00:03:16] of five hours a week thinking about and or performing office work at home. 50 hours at the office plus

[00:03:23] five hours of commuting plus five hours of working at home equals 60 hours. $961.54 weekly

[00:03:31] salary divided by 60 hours equals $16.03 per hour. Once your time commuting and work-related

[00:03:38] activities at home are included in the calculation, your hourly rate drops by just over $3 per hour

[00:03:44] to $1603 per hour. When you are putting in even more time at work in hopes of a promotion or a raise,

[00:03:50] will that bump in your salary offset the short-term losses in your hourly rate?

[00:03:55] After performing this calculation, if you think you need a raise or want to work more

[00:03:59] productively, you're getting my point. Your time is more valuable than the salary you're

[00:04:04] being paid. You can always save money or make more of it, but all of us only have 24 hours in a day,

[00:04:10] and unfortunately none of that time can be banked for future use.

[00:04:15] Five productivity hacks to make more money per hour. And now that you know your true

[00:04:19] hourly rate, here are some ways you can boost it without even asking for a raise or a promotion.

[00:04:24] Number one, stop staying late at the office. Don't work more, work more efficiently. The

[00:04:31] quickest way to increase your hourly rate is by giving yourself a fixed start and end time to your

[00:04:36] workday. You'll be forced to work more productively on the tasks with the biggest impact on the quality

[00:04:41] of your work. Two, work outside the office as much as possible. I'm not advocating working more

[00:04:48] outside the office on top of all the hours you already spend there. Instead, look for ways to

[00:04:53] shift a few of your office hours to outside the office. There are no bigger time-sucks

[00:04:58] than meetings, managers, and traffic. If you can, try working from home at least a couple of days a

[00:05:03] week. When you need to get important and quality work done, close your office door, work in a

[00:05:09] conference room, or even go to a local library. Minimize office distractions and do everything

[00:05:14] you can to reduce the amount of time you spend commuting. Three, eliminate, automate,

[00:05:20] or delegate more of your work. Successful entrepreneurs understand they can't do all

[00:05:25] the work of running their business, so they hire people. As an employee, look for ways to automate

[00:05:30] as many of your administrative tasks as possible. Have the courage to eliminate unnecessary tasks.

[00:05:36] Even if you don't have anyone to manage, look for ways to delegate work that isn't helping you

[00:05:41] grow professionally, or really isn't one of your core responsibilities. Here are three strategies

[00:05:46] for delegating work when you don't have anyone directly reporting to you. First,

[00:05:51] delegate to people more junior than you. If there's anyone hired after you, ask your manager if

[00:05:56] you might be able to delegate tasks to them so you have time to work on more advanced work.

[00:06:01] Second, ask your direct peers for help when you need it. If you are taking on a new work

[00:06:06] challenge and need to pass along some of your easier duties to someone else, then ask for help.

[00:06:11] And third, guard against temporary tasks turning into permanent ones.

[00:06:16] More often than not, a temporary duty turns into a permanent one, and you need to bring

[00:06:20] that to the attention of your superiors if you feel it's not within your core job description.

[00:06:25] Show your managers you're interested in producing more valuable work,

[00:06:29] rather than trying to get out of work.

[00:06:32] Four, don't multitask. Group related tasks together. Multitasking is an illusion.

[00:06:38] Monotasking is far more productive. If you want to get more work done in less time,

[00:06:43] group related tasks together. For example, email is one of the biggest office time socks

[00:06:49] because we allow it to constantly interrupt us throughout the day. Spend less time on your

[00:06:53] email by processing it in batches no more than three times a day. Respond to urgent emails first,

[00:06:59] and spend the last half hour of your day answering the rest.

[00:07:03] And five, start a side business. Each of the previous recommendations to increase your

[00:07:09] hourly rate focuses on reducing the amount of time you spend at work, but you can also

[00:07:13] increase your hourly rate by starting a side business. How? Well, you can start a side

[00:07:18] business by becoming a consultant or a freelancer to generate income from your existing expertise.

[00:07:24] You'll discover that you can get paid more per hour for the exact same work you do in the office.

[00:07:29] The real magic of increasing your hourly rate is by creating a source of passive income.

[00:07:33] This can be a side business that you build that continues to generate

[00:07:36] income without your direct involvement. I do admit that you'll have to put in a lot

[00:07:40] of work up front for long term financial rewards, but at least you'll own all

[00:07:44] the work you put in. Calculate your ideal lifestyle. Knowing your hourly rate helps

[00:07:50] you better assess the value and impact of the work you do. It also provides you with a benchmark

[00:07:55] for better determining your own monetary and work-life balance needs on a daily basis.

[00:08:04] You just listened to the post titled, Five Productivity Hacks to Make More Money

[00:08:09] By Steven Worley of LifeSkillsThatMatter.com

[00:08:13] We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for

[00:08:18] a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching

[00:08:25] and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors and a matching engine that

[00:08:30] helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work, use Indeed for

[00:08:35] scheduling, screening and messaging. 93% of employers agree. Indeed delivers the highest

[00:08:41] quality matches compared to other job sites. One of the things I love about Indeed is that it

[00:08:46] filters out those incompatible applicants. So when you're hiring, the process is much faster

[00:08:51] and you only have to consider applicants that are already likely to be a great fit.

[00:08:55] And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit

[00:08:59] to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com-startup. So just go to Indeed.com-startup right now

[00:09:06] and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.

[00:09:10] Indeed.com-startup. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.

[00:09:17] You don't need me to tell you that something always comes up when you're running a small

[00:09:21] business. Take the pain out of payroll benefits and HR and put the joy back in running your

[00:09:27] business with gusto. Gusto's payroll and HR services can make it a little easier.

[00:09:32] Gusto was designed for you, the small business owner. They take the pain out of running a business,

[00:09:38] automatically calculating paychecks, filing payroll taxes, setting up open enrollment.

[00:09:43] Gusto does it all. Want more? Time tracking, health insurance, 401k, onboarding,

[00:09:50] commuter benefits, offer letters, access to HR experts. Well, you get the idea.

[00:09:56] With gusto, you can focus on the joy of running your business. And it's super easy to set up and

[00:10:00] get started. And if you're moving from another provider, gusto can transfer all your data for you.

[00:10:06] So it's no surprise 94% of customers are likely to recommend gusto. 94. And here's the best part.

[00:10:13] Because you're a listener, you get three months totally free. All you have to do is go to

[00:10:18] gusto.com slash owd. Again, that's gusto.com slash owd. And I'm telling you, you're going to love

[00:10:26] gusto. Get started today. And thank you to Stephen for giving us permission to narrate from

[00:10:32] his blog. And you can visit his site, which I have linked in this episode's description,

[00:10:36] and at oldpodcast.com. He started Life Skills That Matter in 2016 to show you how work is

[00:10:43] changing as you know it, and how you can change work to your advantage. Stephen has been working

[00:10:48] for himself since getting laid off on election day back in 2000. And these days he's obsessed with

[00:10:54] researching and experimenting with alternative ways of working. And he now makes enough money to live

[00:10:59] the life he wants without losing his mind from overworking. And he also has a podcast of his

[00:11:04] own where he's now interviewed over 500 people who have made this transformation to self-employment.

[00:11:09] It's called Life Skills That Matter podcast. And you can also find that on his site,

[00:11:13] which again is lifeskillsthatmatter.com. But that's it for another edition of Optimal Work Daily.

[00:11:19] I really hope you enjoyed the post today and that you'll join me again tomorrow where your

[00:11:23] optimal life awaits.