Back in 2011, I shared what a typical day looked like for me as a part-time internet entrepreneur. I was inspired by Pat Flynn's similar post about his full-time entrepreneur life. At the time, I had a corporate day job, four kids, a wife, a dog, a cat, some fish, two turtles, and about two hours a night to work on my internet business. Here is what that looked like, and what I learned from living that schedule for years.
The Daily Schedule
5:00 AM — Up before the rest of the house. Coffee from the Keurig, shower, dressed and ready by 5:45. Those quiet morning minutes before the chaos starts were sacred.
5:45 – 6:45 AM — Wake the kids, get them moving, and try to squeeze in some quick business tasks. Check email, respond to blog comments, scan social media. Though honestly, once my youngest started waking up at 5:17 AM wanting to play, the business tasks lost out to playtime. When faced with a choice between play and work, I chose play. No regrets on that one.
6:45 – 8:00 AM — Load the kids in the car, 30-minute drive to school, then point the car toward the day job. This was podcast time. I would listen to shows I loved and sometimes call my grandmother in Houston. She was almost 90 at the time, and every minute on the phone with her was a great minute.
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM — The day job. Meetings, emails, managing people. I had an excellent plan for the day by 8:30 every morning, and the plan had almost always gone completely sideways by 9:15. One important rule I kept strictly: I did not use company time or resources for my internet business. Do not cross the beams.
5:00 – 8:00 PM — Commute home, then family time. Bathing kids, homework, dinner, playing games. Feeding the youngest was an adventure since she was learning to climb out of the highchair.
8:00 – 10:00 PM — Time with my wife. Talking about the day, eating a late dinner, watching TV. She was fond of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars. I will neither confirm nor deny that I watched both.
10:00 PM – Midnight (or later) — Finally, internet business time. If I had any energy left, I would work until midnight, sometimes 1 AM. Then the whole thing started over at 5:00 in the morning.
The Lesson That Still Holds
My goal was two hours of focused business work per day. Some days I hit it. Plenty of days I did not. Kids needed homework help in the morning, date nights ran late (usually involving Mexican food and tequila), or I was simply too wiped out by 10 PM to do anything but collapse on the couch.
But here is what mattered: I kept showing up. Not perfectly. Not every single night. But consistently enough that over time, those late-night hours added up to a real business.
What Has Changed Since 2011
The kids are grown now. The schedule looks completely different. But the principle behind it has not changed at all. If you are building a business on the side, you do not need eight hours a day. You need consistency. You need to protect whatever time you can carve out, even if it is just one hour after the kids go to bed.
The tools are better now. You can do in 30 minutes with modern AI writing assistants, design tools, and automation what used to take me two hours of late-night grinding. But the discipline of showing up, of choosing your business over Netflix, of working when you are tired because the goal matters more than comfort — that has not changed and never will.
Do not compare your schedule to someone else's. Compare your business today to where you want it to be, and work toward that. One night at a time.
Wow, you have great priotities set, and you’re a great husband and dad dude. I’m only 18 and I can tell. This is how I’m expecting to live my life however – except the part without a job. I expect to stay up until 12 am everyday of my life lol.
Thanks Jarod — I try hard at both, but there is always room for improvement. I wish I had known about internet business when I was 18.
Mark
This is a truly remarkable feat you achieve do you know that? What happens on a weekend dude? Do you totally crash and spend all day in bed? You seem to work an unbelievable amount of hours dude but I have totally respect for you if you can maintain that level of commitment and endeavour.
I too have a day job but I am nicely in bed by 11 and fast asleep. I struggle to sleep and its important to get the right amount of hours for me or my performance drops significantly.
I commend your hard work and commitment to what you are looking to achieve. Awesome work Mark.
Ryan
Thanks Ryan. I try to work 3 hours at night on the weekends, but I reserve all of the day time for family activities. Right now, that includes playtime, dates with my wife, school projects and homework, chores, church, and kid school/sports activities. But I do get more done on the weekend, and I do sleep a bit more (although Zachary is ready to play by 6:30AM no matter what). 🙂
Thanks Mark – very enlightening. My day was highly similar to yours 15 years ago when I lived a few miles south of you (then not now). I can’t imagine trying to get by with so little sleep today – lol.
At your suggestion I began following Pat about a year ago and it has helped tremendously. My next statement is going to sound negative, it’s not meant to be, it simply points out what you already did.
Pat’s monthly income statements probably help his followers far less than they think it does. Sure, when a full-time IM’r lists their income (Pat’s is pretty staggering to me), it gives a heck of a lot of credence to what they do. However, it also probably frustrates the majority of readers – some alot.
I would speculate that 95% of online marketers work full-time at something else, and moving to a fulltime income is FAR more difficult than most would want to admit. For many, it’s not much more than a dream – for a host of reasons. For others, it’s wonderful motivation, but, sadly for most (and I’ve been there), the testimonials we read online serve as a major point of frustration – IF we let them. Therefore, your comments on that issue are pure gold – don’t compare.
Not to be a Pat apologist, but he is not an Internet Marketer (at least how I define the term). He does not constantly sell the Must Have product of the week.
I do find his income reports very inspiring because they include so much that is not Make Money Online related.
iPhone Apps – $4k
Niche Site #1 – $3k
Niche Site #2 and other stuff – $1k
Right there is $8k per month that’s not related to his SPI website. Sure he does make a nice chunk of change with affiliate sales that’s tied closely to people trying to catch on to the Make Money Online craze, but I feel he’s never pushing products on me (or maybe he’s just that good… hmmm… maybe I need to rethink this).
To me, the term Internet Marketer is kind of slimy – like the stereotypical image of a used car salesman. So sorry for rant Kent. Pat’s one of the few I respect and trust in the MMO arena and I reserve the Internet Marketer for about 80% of the emails I get in my “Spam” email account.
Just to be clear — I love to read Pat’s income reports — and I love the reason that he puts them out there. AND I hope he never quits publishing them.
I just want to make sure that everyone is looking at them like Jason does — and not becoming frustrated by comparing themselves to Pat.
Thanks for the comment Jason — I especially agree about your point that it shows so many different ways to make money online.
To be clear however, I do think Pat is an Internet Marketer. He is a lot more than that too (which may be your point). As an Internet Marketer, Pat is the best of the best, and a great guy too (and that is not typical of the internet marketers out there).
Thanks,
Mark
You are quite welcome Kent. Glad I helped you find Pat. I agree with you about the income statements. As a way for Pat to prove that he is a credible source of information and that he is completely transparent, they are really valuable. But I do find, as you mention, that many people get frustrated when they are not doing as well as the gurus. Even I have that issue sometime.
Thanks for the comment.
Mark
Excellent post Mark, we are really on same page with our lives. I don’t have kids but I feel your pain trying to find time at night. It is a struggle for me to find time each day after giving most of my energy to work.
I just keep chipping away and although my goals are taking longer to realize, I am starting to see growth.
I also listen to the exact same podcasts each and every day. I also throw in the Mixergy podcast as well. Great stuff, have learned from everyone!
Thanks for sharing Mark, I am finding out that I’m not alone!
Marty
I will have to check out Mixergy. Thanks for the comment!
Just curious Mark, if your internet business was as profitablea as Pat’s business, would you quit your day job?
Great site Mark. I am not sure if you remember me from years ago, has to be between 5 and 10 years ago when we met in some group. Not sure which one it was not, been to long and to many groups since then. But nice job on the site and even the products that you are selling. I have just recently bought something from you. Anyways, just wanted to say Hi and see if you remembered me? Later Bro… Steve