December is a good time to take a pause and reflect. You might be thinking that 2025 went past in a flash and asking yourself ‘How do I find out where my time went this year?’.

I want to suggest to you in this post is not just a general reflection but taking the opportunity to conduct a deeper, more intentional check-up on your life. I want to introduce you to the idea of a time management audit—a different way of reviewing your year. I think it’s essential when it comes to learning lessons about how you manage your time and ensuring that in 2026 you address the challenges and build on your strengths of 2025.

If you're currently feeling worried about finding the 'perfect' present for everyone I want you to know you’re not alone. Christmas brings with it so many pressures and expectations that it is easy to get stressed and to feel overwhelmed by Christmas shopping. In this post I am going to help you to stop that never-ending searching for the ‘perfect’ gift  and put an end to the festive stress right now.

Time block makes life feel doable. You’re not faced with a seemingly endless list of tasks, unsure how you’re going to get them all done. With time blocking, you can see exactly when you’re going to do them all.

I know, however, that not everyone agrees with me, and many people find this way of planning and managing their time overly complicated, time-consuming, and rigid.

In this post, I want to look at the common objections I hear from people about why time blocking doesn't work for them and suggest ways that these challenges can be addressed. So, if you're one of those sceptics, then read on…

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices you face every single day? From what to wear to what to eat for dinner, our modern lives are filled with micro-decisions that silently drain our mental energy. The secret to regaining control and saving time isn't to seek more options—it's to impose fewer.

I want to introduce you to the powerful concept of implementing constraints. As defined by Brooke Castillo of The Life Coach School, a constraint is a limitation or a restriction you put on yourself that simplifies your life. This single decision-making framework can eliminate confusion, bring clarity and most importantly, save time.

The Manual, in essence, is an unspoken set of rules that we have about other people's behaviours. It consists of expectations we hold for our spouses, our colleagues, other drivers on the motorway, and anyone else we encounter in our lives. We expect them to behave this way in order for us to feel good and be happy. We don't express these views. We just expect people to follow the rules that we have set without actually telling them how we expect them to behave. There are two problems with this approach.

If you have cupboards, drawers, and boxes filled with things you never use, but can’t quite bring yourself to part with them, then read on. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to decluttering is‍ about letting go of objects that hold memories. Therefore, even if your home is functional and clean, you may still be hanging on to stuff that doesn't serve you.

As your pace of life starts to slow down now we are in autumn I want to encourage you to make the most of this opportunity - to lean into it — to create space, restore order, and enjoy the comfort that comes with slowing down. You might be feeling a sense of sadness as summer is over— you’ve had your holidays and all that is ahead are cold, dark months and work. But I believe there are many positives to this time of year, and that it offers a wonderful opportunity to get your life in order. You can also positively embrace those cosy, dark evenings. 

When people say they don't have time for something, it can often be that they are resisting doing tasks that they don't want to do. They are spending their time buffering instead of getting on with the tasks they supposedly want to do.  What buffering provides for you, the reward you get from this activity, is short-term emotional pleasure but the pay off can be long-term ‘pain’. It is engaging in ‘bad’ habits which have a short-term positive effect on you and usually a long-term negative one instead of engaging in good habits which have a short-term negative impact and a long-term positive impact.

In this post I wanted to talk about fear and to help you consider whether it’s fear that’s stopping you from making time for your side hustle rather than the hours and minutes you have available to you each week.

Fear is a useful and necessary feeling. It has enabled us as human beings to survive. That’s because when the world was a dangerous place it helped us to avoid dying. When we shared our homes with wild creatures such as wolves and lions we would run in the opposite direction if we saw one. Fear is a basic instinct which has served us well, but in this modern world, it can be out of date.

Vicky loves to save money, but also get the best value for her money, so when she found out she could get both by becoming a Utility Warehouse customer she was in. Then she found out she could earn an income from simply sharing with other people what they could save she was hooked. Vicky has been a Utility Warehouse customer and partner for eight years. Her goal, which is something I’m sure many of you reading this will share, is to get to the point where she can ditch her day job to concentrate fully on helping people save on their costly outgoings.

I am writing this in May and the weather has been warm and sunny now for a few weeks, which makes me want to be outside instead of sitting in front of my laptop writing. When the sun is shining through the window I want to be able to spend time in the garden or go hiking and not fill my day with blog post writing or creating my digital course.

All of this has got me wondering whether I could make my side hustle seasonal. In her book ‘Self-Care for Winter’ Suzy Reading talks about being inside more during the colder months and for me that’s the ideal time to be writing. A long dark and wet evening when there isn’t much on the TV. A great time for content creation.

In the second of my side hustler spotlight series I’d like to introduce you to Eve Cale. Eve is mum to two children, a teen and tween and has been married to her husband Chris for nearly 15 years. She and her family live in Chippenham Wiltshire.

Eve has always been someone who loves sending cards and gifts. Whilst she was at a baby group she came across a stall of lovely looking products. After taking a brochure home to browse and ordering some products she came across an ad on the back page. This told her that she could buy a kit and sell the products too.

In the first of my side hustler spotlight series I’d like to introduce you to my friend Steph Roff. As well as being a mum of two, Steph is a part-time account manager.  Life is full and busy, but she has still found the time to build a business she truly loves.

Steph is the founder of Skin Radiance, her side hustle built to help people discover the joy of great skincare. She is passionate about helping her customers find their ideal skincare routine, one that not only meets their skin goals, but also bring joy to their daily lives.

I feel that there is a movement recently to turn away from social media,  to be more present, and rightly so. Over the past few years it’s probably tipped too much in the other direction. Many people are glued to their smartphones, particularly young people and are missing out on real life experiences. Whilst that isn’t good for anyone ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ i.e. going cold turkey and rarely using your phone, isn’t necessarily the best plan, particularly if you’re building a side hustle. The thing is, your smartphone can be a great tool—not a time-waster—when it comes to finding time for your side hustle. Let’s look at some examples…

Having children is time-consuming and not something that I write about on here often as I don’t have any children, but I know that lots of you do and I wanted to give you some ideas about how you can use that to your advantage when it comes to finding time for your side hustle.

Some parents don’t seem to expect their children to do a lot for their pocket money whilst others expect it to be earnt and their offspring have daily chores they need to complete before any cash is handed over.

Are you struggling to think of content for social media? For blog posts? For sales emails? Have you tried just saying the same thing time and time again, but in a different way? Believe me, you don’t need to post original content every single time. In fact, nobody does this. Don’t believe me? Scroll through the feed of your favourite social media influencer and you’ll see that they’re putting out the same message time and time again.

One thing that people often say to me is that I am very disciplined; usually in the context of diet and exercise rather than finding time for my side hustle, but nevertheless that’s how many friends regard me, as a disciplined individual. What I find interesting is the way that they say this makes it sound as though it’s a characteristic that I was born with, such as my height or the colour of my eyes; an advantage that I have been blessed with from birth. But the truth is that discipline is a skill, one that can be cultivated and become part of your personality. You just need to take the time to learn and develop that skill.

Does this sound familiar? You’re sitting in front of your computer looking at a blank screen. You know you want to write an article for your website, but you just don’t know where to start. You’ve got a great topic, but the ideas just aren’t flowing today.

You can waste a lot of time being stuck. Stuck not knowing what to write, stuck coming up with a title for your webinar, stuck revising and revising your freebie and never feeling that it’s right. The good news is that AI can help with all of these. You don’t need to be stuck. You just need to ask ChatGPT.

You’re here because you wish you had more time for your side hustle, but as I said ‘time is money’ and there are ways to get more time by buying it. In other words you pay someone else to give you their time. This is time that you don’t have to spend doing a task in your side hustle.

The thing that I bet is burning on your lips is ‘but I don’t have any spare cash to be able to afford these things’. Don’t worry. Read on for loads of great money saving ideas to keep some extra cash in your bank account to spend on your side hustle and ultimately save you time. 

A common problem that I see is people often tell me that they don’t have time for their side hustle, or as much time as they’d like, but when we analyse their week we find the time. It is just spent doing something else - watching TV, scrolling social media, pottering around the house not doing anything particularly useful. In other words, activities which require little to no effort or brain power.

And that’s the problem. Working on your side hustle takes effort and focus, which is hard to come by at the end of a busy day. It is made even more difficult when you don’t look after your wellbeing. And by wellbeing I mean getting enough sleep, exercising, eating well, etc. And this is what I want to look at in this post.