How I Manage My Time To Make Over $1 MillIon Per Year

What's up you guys? It's Graham here!

So, the last year, a lot has happened. This channel grew from 200,000 subscribers to now over 1 million subscribers! I also started a second channel, which posts an additional four times a week. I'm also still selling real estate as a real estate agent, including a home I recently sold for 1.7 million dollars to my buddy Lucas. Lucas, if you're watching this, congratulations!

And also, another huge financial milestone here: but this is the first year I've ever made over a million dollars in a year, which is absolutely absurd! For those of you that remember my really old videos, I set a completely unrealistic goal to make a million dollars in a year. I figured that was just never going to happen, but I just also thought, "Well, I'm gonna throw it out in the universe and just see what happens." And then it happened!

And just to be clear, that's not gross revenue like some of these Shopify guys say, "Oh, I made a million dollars in a year!" But actually, they made like fifty grand after all their expenses. No, this is all just like net profit because I just, I don't spend money. And when it comes to doing all of this, for the most part, I do it all myself. There's not some huge team of people behind me; this is not some huge conglomerate just going and churning out like cookie-cutter content.

Besides my buddy Jack, who helps me set up and edit the phone calls in the second channel, and go through my emails and help with some other optimizations, it's really just me recording videos in my garage to one single camera, and then editing them in the dining room, trying to talk about topics that I myself find interesting that I want to share with everyone watching. Then I just try to get people to smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm, if you have not done that already.

So anyway, needless to say, I am very busy. In the last year, I've had to make a lot of sacrifices for the sake of being able to do all of this myself and keep the focus around you as the viewer, not me as the business. And with that type of schedule comes a very serious focus on time management, in order to get absolutely everything done when it needs to be done, without missing a beat, and all without driving myself completely crazy!

I drive myself crazy sometimes, but never completely crazy and that's the difference. So these are those time management tips and tricks that I've learned along the way that I found work incredibly well. A lot of this was learned through trial and error, burning myself out, readjusting, and then figuring out what actually works.

And no crazy tips or tricks or anything unrealistic; it's just actual practical real-world things that I have found really work, and I've enjoyed doing. So anyway, with that said, make sure to smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm, make sure to also sign up for Weibo and you get two free stocks when you deposit $100—link in the description! Now, let's get into the video.

So first, never ever say the excuse, "I don't have the time." This is how I felt once I started to see the channel grow and with the mounting pressure of trying to make everyone happy and hit as many topics as I could, while also trying to diversify my content by then making the second channel. The excuse that I just don't have the time for everything anymore was a very common occurrence!

I just figured to myself I need to prioritize everything; I don't have time for everything and I need to pour everything I have into my work to continue the momentum and make the most of this opportunity. Everything else is not important and can wait. But I soon found that it just became an overwhelmed, one-dimensional person who is only focused on just creating the next video.

It turned out that I did have time to do many of the other things that I wanted to do that weren't geared towards productivity if I just made the time for it. This all just boils down to what's called Parkinson's Law, which suggests that the work you have will expand to the allotted time you give to it.

So for instance, if you have an entire day to get something done, the chances are you will take all day to get it done. Versus, on the other hand, if you just give it two hours to get done, then chances are you will find a way to get it done in two hours. The reality is that the less time you have to get something done, the more likely you are to get it done sooner.

By giving myself permission to go and do other non-work-related things, I had less time in the day to get everything else done, which meant that I just got it done faster. Now I have the same amount of work done with also now more free time for myself, which then makes me feel better!

So never tell yourself that you don't have the time because you do if you just make time for it, and that will allow you to do so much more work than you ever thought was possible.

Secondly, I rejected my schedule to optimize my prime working hours. Here's what I found: I found that there are certain times in the day I can get a lot done. I could get in the zone, I'm super motivated, and I'm so creative. Other times in the day, I'm naturally just unmotivated, I slack off, I feel lazy, and I cannot focus.

So I began to rework my entire day around my own internal schedule and not trying to fit my internal schedule around the day. For example, from 8 o'clock in the morning to about 11:30, I find myself incredibly productive. I get in the zone; I can get a lot done.

Then from about 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., I find myself just constantly distracted. I can't seem to focus; I get very frustrated easily. Then again, after about 9:00 p.m., I can seem to get back in the zone and get whatever work I need to get done, done.

Instead of going and just fighting it and trying to get my most productive work done in the afternoon when it's the most difficult for me, I've just decided to embrace it. I now get my most important creative work done in the morning, my least important work done in the afternoon, and then I finish everything else up after 9:00 p.m.

This way, I'm not wasting my mornings doing something that's not productive or doing something that isn't best suited to that time, and I'm better optimizing my entire schedule. That way, I know when I work best and can get that work done at that time.

So if you're looking to do something similar, then I highly recommend you really pay attention to your own schedule and find out when you tend to be the most motivated and most productive during the day. Every single one of us has our own internal schedule as to when we hit our stride and then when we tend to burn out.

By really paying attention to this and looking at when I can naturally work the best, I've been able to optimize my entire day and get way more done than I ever thought was imaginable, just by embracing it and understanding that in the afternoons, the chances are I'm gonna be answering comments or responding to something—it’s not too important. I'm not trying to get my best work done in the afternoon when I'm naturally just feeling lazy.

The third thing is there's no way I could do a video on productivity without this one, and that is by prioritizing your entire day. This is the one habit that I've kept going for years, and without it, I would be completely lost and stuck!

What I do is the night before, I go through on my phone and create a to-do list of everything I need to do and what urgency I need to do it, starting with the most important tasks first. Then, what I do is the next day, I begin to complete all those tasks based on their urgency and my own internal schedule.

This list keeps me on track the entire day. I know everything that needs to get done, and my day does not end until those things are checked off by a certain time. I've also begun putting time limits on certain tasks to avoid them taking longer than necessary, and just so I could better organize my day by knowing exactly how long something is expected to take me.

For example, here's a recent note for YouTube that goes over everything I need to get done and in what order, and also how long it's going to take me. By putting time limits on everything, I found that I could more realistically hit those goals and get it done a little bit sooner.

Also, mentally, I found that it's a lot less intimidating to see something that only takes 25 minutes than to not put anything there and kind of be wondering, "Ooh, how long is this going to take me to get done?" So this means if you have not already started a to-do list, you need to go and put that on your to-do list now!

Fourth, I found that you need to make a very conscious effort to cut out all distractions. Now, admittedly, this is the one that I probably struggled with the most. Most of the time, I'm very good at keeping myself focused, but every now and then, my mind just begins to wander.

In that moment, I'm just tempted to go and check Instagram or just go and check my email just for a second, just to see what's posted on YouTube or maybe if there's anything I want to read. But we all know what happens when you do that! You go on for 30 seconds; it ends up taking 10 or 15 minutes.

Then, by the time you finish, it takes you another five minutes just to get back in the zone of where you were before you even took the break. The same thing will also apply to my email. I could be in the middle of planning out a video, in the zone, and then I see an email pop up, and I wonder, "Oh, who could be sending me an email? I wonder if it's important." Then I don't check the email—it's always spam. I delete it, and then while I'm away from my work, I think, "Well, I may as well just go and check Reddit now, too," and then my whole day is ruined.

So recently, I've started to implement what I call "work time," which is where I put everything on do not disturb for 60 minutes. I put my phone and my computer on do not disturb. I make sure to close out every single tab besides exactly what I'm working on. I actually go and put my phone in another room just so I'm not tempted to go and check it for anything. If anything is urgent, then those people just know how to reach me; everything else can wait.

I just get a solid 60 minutes to focus and work. I found that once I started doing this, I became insanely more productive. I can get three hours of distracted work done in one hour of focus, which leaves me with more time in the day to do other things. I must stress that I have more time to myself, and just the productivity boost is so worth it.

For me, it takes a lot of self-control to put yourself in the zone and just not be tempted to check everything, but I promise you it is 1,000% worth it if you can actually do it!

So number five, we're going to follow what's known as the two-minute rule. Yes, for anyone wondering, I do wear pants when I film, and today I'm feeling like sitting this way on my chair because it is comfortable.

For anyone wondering if I wear pants in my videos, yes, and today it is sweatpants! This is a concept by David Allen, who explains that most things we procrastinate on really don't take that much time to do. But for whatever reason, we end up putting it off and just wanting to do it later.

This rule really just suggests that anything you can get done in two minutes or less, you should do immediately! Whether it's making the bed in the morning, doing dishes, putting away laundry, or anything like that—two minutes or less—just always get it done right then and there! Or in other words, according to him, if the effort of remembering the task will take you longer than just getting it done immediately, then just go and do it immediately.

This works because once you get in the momentum of getting things done immediately, that tends to continue in other areas of your life as well. Like, starting to organize your email—just spend two minutes doing it, and then more than likely you'll go and organize everything. Or starting to clean your house—spend two minutes doing that; chances are you're just gonna keep going until you get everything done.

Now doing this has a few really good effects. Number one, it begins to declutter your mind. By getting all the small annoying things out of the way early on, you're able to focus on the bigger picture and more important aspects of your life, like smashing the like button and putting away your iced coffee.

Secondly, by getting things done immediately, we're able to see immediate progress in our work, and that is likely to increase our mood, increase endorphins, and again, that will continue to do better work elsewhere.

Then third, any amount of momentum will soon become a habit, and then by habits, you will just end up being productive! So anytime you see something that you need to do immediately, like signing up for a Weeble link in the description, getting two free stocks when you deposit $100, just go do that immediately, get that out of the way, and then you can focus on the bigger, better picture.

Number six: I cannot talk about increasing productivity and income without addressing how I'm actually making the income in the first place, and for me, that is from a business that is scalable, that isn't time-dependent on how many hours I spend on it. For me, right now, obviously, that is from YouTube.

Now this is something I didn't completely understand or appreciate until really I saw the potential about two years ago. Even with this video, the work it takes me to reach one person is the exact same work it takes to reach one million people!

So my income is no longer dependent on how many hours I work, but instead, how many people I can reach and how many people smash the like button. This means my income is now able to scale parabolically without me working any more hours, doing anything differently, and literally doing the same thing I was doing in the past. But now, I'm just making way more money for the same work!

That single differentiation is exactly what led me to now making over a million dollars a year. I am doing the exact same work as I was two years ago, when I was making $2,500 a month on AdSense, as I am right now, making over $150,000 a month in AdSense between the two channels. The only change now is the size of my audience and how many people are watching my videos.

I say all of this as a real estate agent, who was earning in the mid-six figures every single year, but I still felt myself tapped out in terms of how many clients I could realistically take on in time—how many houses I could realistically sell. I felt like eventually there was going to be a ceiling on how much money I could reasonably make for the time I'm spending on it, until I began making videos and following this passion.

Did I say that YouTube has a much larger outreach and a much bigger potential than I never thought was imaginable before? This allows me to work the same hours as I was before, but now I'm able to have a much larger outreach and impact as this just progresses.

Now, I'm not going to try to recommend to everyone to go and start a YouTube channel; that is not the point of this video. But for anyone who not only wants to be more productive, but also scale their income exponentially, you need to work on a business that is not dependent on how many hours you spend on it, but instead the amount of people that you can reach and the amount of value that you could add to somebody else.

This could be running a business, selling a product, creating an app, or self-publishing a book. The sky is the limit! The point being, it needs to be something that you could create now that provides value, that is independent of any further time you spend on it.

Because there will always be a limit on how many hours you can physically work yourself and how much you could physically do in a given day on your own before you hit a wall, and that wall requires an automated business to go and overcome that and get to the other side.

So in terms of actually making more than a million dollars a year and managing my time, that is exactly how I did it. It absolutely required that I restructure my entire day, my priorities, and focus on the highest-yielding activities first. But it was entirely worth it.

By no means am I perfect, and I still realize that I have a very far way to go in terms of achieving the ideal work-life balance. But I have noticed that these productivity tips have helped tremendously in giving myself a little bit more free time while still getting the same amount of work done, if not more.

And that not only leads to a significant improvement in terms of my day, but also in my income as well. Again, all of this is still a work in progress, and I'm still trying a lot of new things. For instance, I just started meditating for the first time ever in the mornings. I never used to do that; I used to think it's stupid! I'm trying it out now to give myself a chance.

I'm just trying all of these new concepts to see what works and what doesn't work and what improves my life and what doesn't. That way, I can make videos on them and report to you guys to see if maybe they can help you as well.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it. As always, if you've not already subscribed, make sure to subscribe. Make sure to hit the notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram; I post there pretty much daily!

So if you want to add me there, feel free. Also, going to add me on my second channel; it is called the Graham Stephan Show. I post there every single day. I don't post here, so if you want to watch me every single day, make sure to add me there!

Thank you again for watching, and until next time!