As the author of more than 70 books, Steve “S.J.” Scott is one of the most productive and disciplined people I know.

His latest title, Habit Stacking, became a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and served as the inspiration for this episode.

(Long-time listeners might remember Steve from WAY back in the archives; he was my guest in episode 9 where we discussed how to earn money as a side hustling author.)

This time though we’re diving into a few of the habits that allow Steve to continually drive his business forward, and lead a healthier and happier life. Plus, you’ll learn why we think they’re important and how you can apply them in your own life.

They’re not all directly business-related, but most take 5 minutes or less and are designed to:

increase your productivity
reduce stress
prioritize your workload
help you find a healthy work-life balance

Tune in to hear how Steve and I incorporate these habits into our daily routines (or plan to, in my case).

As you’ll see in the links section below, there are a lot of books, apps, and resources mentioned.

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1. Track Your Time

Track how you spend your time working on different aspects of your business.

You can create blocks for writing, marketing, social media, research, etc., and using an app like aTimeLogger to track your time across these categories.

The goal is to review this data monthly to see where your time is actually going and make changes if needed to better allocate your precious time. For example, aim to spend 30% of your time writing and 20% on book marketing.

Give time tracking a try for the next month and see what insights it provides on where you’re actually spending (or wasting) hours each day.

Just having that self-awareness should help you become more disciplined during working sessions.

Pro tip: when your significant other wants to chat for “just a minute”…stop the timer!

2. Review Your Goals Daily

I’m definitely guilty of not setting clear annual goals in recent years. And even when I do set them, I’m terrible at reviewing them consistently.

That’s why you should review your goals daily to keep them top of mind throughout your day. While some aim to set 12-week goals (inspired by The 12 Week Year), Steve takes a more holistic, less stressful approach by focusing on key areas:

Spending time with friends and family
Writing books
Book marketing
Working on his blog

To ingrain these priorities, you can create a daily reminder that pops up every time he opens his Chrome browser.

The tool Steve uses is a simple blank page with his goals listed. I use a Chrome extension called Momentum that serves a similar purpose — it asks for my main focus each day to imprint my goals every time I open a new browser tab.

The daily goal review habit keeps your priorities front and center no matter how busy life gets.

3. Write Down ALL of Your Tasks

The goal is to document everything you do related to your business—writing, marketing, research, etc.—in an ongoing list. Steve also suggests noting things you want to do but can’t yet.

You could put this in Evernote. You could have this as a text file and have this open at all times.

Review this cumulative list weekly or monthly to find opportunities to delegate tasks that:

You hate doing
Can’t do yourself
Shouldn’t be doing

Options include hiring a VA through VirtualStaffFinder.com, freelancers, or automating through IFTTT and Zapier.

This helps you focus energy on high-impact tasks while unloading less critical items over time.

4. Fix Your “Broken Windows”

I love the analogy of “broken windows” from the Malcolm Gladwell book The Tipping Point. The idea is that visual mess and disorder in your surroundings can negatively impact your motivation and mindset.

I took a glance around my home office after he said that and realized I have toy clutter chaos everywhere!

It’s important to start your day by tidying up your immediate workspace. Something as simple as making your bed can trigger a positive mind shift to set the tone for productivity.

You want to minimize visual distractions that can divert mental bandwidth.

I find this theory applies to inbox clutter too – I’m way more stressed out when I have 100+ unread emails staring at me. But if I block out time to process and organize messages first thing in the morning, I feel calmer and more focused.

5. Wear a Step Tracking Device

I’ve seen friends and family members get obsessed with their Fitbits and step counts over the years. But Steve presented a compelling productivity angle that I haven’t considered before.

He uses step counts almost like a Pavlovian trigger to remind himself to take regular movement breaks. His Fitbit Charge 2 buzzes every hour, prompting him to get up and walk around for a few minutes.

Just a quick lap around the house or office lets your mind recharge a bit.

And apparently, if you do this every hour for a 10-hour workday, you easily accumulate 2,500+ daily steps without any other exercise.

I love this because I often find myself glued in place for much too long while editing podcast episodes. Now my goal is to implement this hourly step countdown to enforce breaks and mental resets.

The key is finding small ways to regularly move your body, which pays significant rewards in energy, health, and wellbeing over time.

6. Keep a Food Diary

I don’t think I’ve ever consciously tracked what I eat on a daily basis.

While I generally try to maintain healthy eating habits, Steve raised an interesting point about accountability, which is to keep a food diary using an app like MyFitnessPal.

Writing down everything you eat brings two main benefits:

Accountability and honesty about the calories you’re actually eating
Subconscious discouragement from making less healthy choices (when you know you’ll have to document them later!)

The idea here is “what gets measured gets managed.” So when you know how much you’re putting your body, you can start to make small choices to improve your health.

Now when you’re grabbing that second chocolate chip cookie, there’s a mental speed bump in place. Because you know you’ll have to document it later in your food diary! Over time this heightened consciousness can nudge you toward better decisions.

Give keeping a food diary a try if your current approach to diet isn’t yielding the results you desire. And leverage the data to consciously improve!

7. Research One Side Hustle

As the host of The Side Hustle Show, I believe learning about new income ideas can spark creativity and inspiration.

Choose one potential hustle to research for 5-10 minutes each day. I love this incremental approach as an “elephant habit” strategy.

You can explore opportunities from resources such as my book, Buy Buttons: The Fast-Track Strategy to Make Extra Money and Start a Business in Your Spare Time.

You can also maintain a spreadsheet tracking the required time, costs, equipment, and personality fit for ideas that intrigue you.

Critical questions to ask yourself for each prospect include:

Do I have time for this?
What equipment is needed?
How much money do I need to invest upfront?
Does this match my personality and skills?

The goal is to find ONE promising match to begin testing and see if it can scale rather than jumping from idea to idea. Use a tool like the pro calculator at ListenMoneyMatters.com to evaluate financial viability.

The goal here is to identity options aligned with your skills and interests. But don’t let analysis paralysis set in!

Once an idea seems viable and exciting, take action to get it off the ground even before you feel “ready.” You’ll learn the most by doing, and course correct as needed based on real-world customer feedback.

8. Break Down a Big Project into Manageable Steps

The eighth habit draws from David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach of breaking big projects down into specific next step actions.

Whenever you’re faced with something with multiple steps, you want to break it down into a single action that you can do in just one day.

You can use apps like Todoist to manage extensive writing pipeline, with 70+ granular steps assigned to each book project. This transforms an intimidating goal like “write book” into small, daily progress.

For example, if you’re planning to redesign your website, you could include:

Identify a theme
Get some new pictures taken
Hire somebody to modify it

The key is to “identify the next actionable step.” Map out the full roadmap upfront into concrete checkpoints then tackle each piece along the way.

9. Follow an Evening Shutdown Routine

Establish an evening shutdown routine to create better work-life balance as an entrepreneur. Without definitive signals, it’s easy to endlessly work nights and weekends without enjoyment.

You can do a 5 to 10 minute practice at the end of each day, inspired by Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work:

Review tomorrow’s calendar
Make sure no critical tasks were missed
Identify the 1-3 most important tasks for tomorrow
Fully power down computer
Plug phone into charger across the room
Focus on family time/hobbies

Creating space for non-work activities and truly being present with loved ones requires the discipline to “turn off” each evening. Give it a try to prevent burnout!

10. Deep Breathing / Meditation / Progressive Relaxation

Deep Breathing – As John Lee Dumas has noted in Ep 436, taking slow breaths deep into your belly is tremendously relaxing. Make time to focus on your breath.
Meditation – A regular meditation practice clears mental clutter. Start small with 5-10 minutes daily.
Progressive Relaxation – Based on the technique from the book Declutter Your Mind, systematically tense and release muscle groups across your entire body to melt away tension.

Pick one or two of these that appeal and make time to build the ritual. You may also find benefit in layering all three into an evening routine.

The goal is simply to infuse more mindfulness into daily life—to be fully present despite chaos and keep perspective on what truly matters. Small habits can yield huge changes over time.

Steve’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Identify your 80/20. Figure out what’s actually driving the results and focus on that first thing every morning.”

Your Turn

I hope you enjoyed exploring these 10 foundational habits. Even implementing one or two of these practices can pay huge rewards over time.

Start small and be consistent above all. Track your progress to stay motivated and build momentum. And let me know which habits resonate most with you or what’s working in your own routine!

Links:

DevelopGoodHabits.com
HabitStackingBook.com (no longer active)
Steve on The Side Hustle Show in 2013
aTimeLogger
Toggl.com
The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran
Momentum (The Chrome extension I couldn’t remember)
Evernote
Chris Ducker’s 3 Lists to Freedom
Virtual Staff Finder
IFTTT
Zapier
I Done This
Nudgemail | My Daily I Done This and Gratitude Journal Setup
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Fitbit Charge 2
Treadmill Desk Revolution
My home office setup
Essentialism
MyFitnessPal | My HealthyWage review: Get Paid to Lose Weight?
Buy Buttons
Listen Money Matters property evaluation tool
Todoist
Getting Things Done by David Allen
HARO
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Declutter Your Mind by Steve Scott and Barrie Davenport
10-Minute Mindfulness by Steve Scott and Barrie Davenport
John Lee Dumas on The Side Hustle Show

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

What are the best side hustles for creatives?

If you have a creative passion, you may feel like it’s not possible to make money from it. But that’s not true at all!

In this post, I’ll share my top side hustles for creatives based on:

My 15+ years of side hustle experience
Conversations with 100s of creative hustlers
Schedule flexibility and earning power

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Sell Printables on Etsy

Selling printables on Etsy is a great way to make extra money if you have an eye for design and love researching new niches.

For example, Rachel Jones reported earning up to $10,000 a month without any inventory.

2. Print on Demand Products

Merch by Amazon is a fun way to make extra money. Upload your t-shirt (and other product) designs, set your price, and then let Amazon do all the work of printing and shipping your orders.

Elaine Heney made over $50,000 doing this part-time and shared some of her tips on The Side Hustle Show.

(My wife made over $2k in her first year doing this in her spare time too!)

3. Start a YouTube Channel

Creating content on YouTube is a a great creative side hustle. In playing producer, you’ll be in charge of:

script writing
filming locations
shooting or sourcing footage
editing
designing thumbnails

It’s a lot of work, but will definitely exercise your creative muscles. Once your channel reaches certain milestones, you can begin to monetize with YouTube’s built-in advertising options.

(You can also use YouTube in other creative ways, like to sell a digital product or service.)

In my case, YouTube is around a $400/mo income stream:

4. Freelance Writing

With millions of websites all competing for attention, freelance writing is a service that’s constantly in demand. Someone’s got to create all that content, right?

Georgia Austin even turned her writing side hustle into a full-blown agency!

Here’s a great free resource to get started: Your 9-Step Blueprint to Making Money as a Writer

If you have a way with words, make sure to check out this creative side hustle.

5. Web Design Service

In an inspiring Side Hustle Show episode, Chris Misterek shared how he taught himself web design and began earning $3000 a month.

It requires both creativity and technical skills to bring a website to life for a client. But even with a wide variety of DIY options, professional designers are still in-demand.

6. Build a Helpful Website

Write content on a topic you care about and build an audience in your niche.

For example:

Shelley earns $50k a month from her travel blogs
Scott earns 6-figures a year from his bird-watching blog
Katie earns $6k a month from her gray hair blog

Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.

7. Product Licensing

If you’re always coming up with new ideas, product licensing is the creative side hustle for you. How it works is you sell the rights to your idea to large companies, who then pay you royalties for every sale they make from that idea.

For example, Nate Dallas earned $300,000 from Mattel after licensing them an idea for a Pictionary spin-off.

8. Find a Virtual Job

FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site. With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.

When I searched for “creative” jobs, I found over 200 results!

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

This is a great way to find a remote job in your niche.

9. Teaching Music

With a love for music, teaching, and working with kids, you could start a part-time music teaching business. In our town, we see instructors setting up shop at children’s fairs and the weekly farmer’s markets to advertise.

10. Music Licensing

Singer-songwriter Cathy Heller found a unique way to “reverse-engineer” her dream job by licensing her catchy tunes to big brands and TV shows.

Alternatively, licensing stock music is a bit of a numbers game, but can be a cool way to earn passive income from your art.

11. Voiceover Acting

I think we can all agree that getting paid to talk is a pretty sweet gig, and Voices.com is the #1 marketplace for voice over talent.

Companies are always on the look for professional voiceover talent. Once you start listening for it, you’ll hear voiceover work everywhere.

One Side Hustle Show guest reported turning her voiceover side hustle into a full-time gig in just 4 months, earning up to $3000 an hour in the process.

12. Start an Email Newsletter

The newsletter business model is low overhead, simple to manage, and can scale to a significant income stream.

For example, the popular daily business newsletter Morning Brew sold for a reported $75 million!

Building a newsletter is a popular way to build community with others who are creative just like you.

13. Self-Publish on Amazon

If writing is your creative outlet, start publishing your work! Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle platform, you can publish your work and tap into a massive audience of book buyers. 

Self-publishing is one of my favorite and longest-running side hustles. I remember my first royalty payment from Amazon — it was something like $42 — and being thrilled, thinking “I did it! I’m a professional author!”

Since then I’ve earned over $75,000 in author royalties. Books are a pretty awesome way to build authority in your niche and earn passive income along the way.

Related: My Amazon author profile and book listings

11. Create an Outschool Class

Outschool is a marketplace for online small group classes for kids.

Inside you’ll find classes on:

creative writing
reading
coding
music
art
and more

For example, Jade Weatherington reported earning over $10,000 a month from her virtual writing classes.

What creative outlet could you teach?

12. Sell Lesson Plans and Material

Teachers Pay Teachers is a popular marketplace for lesson plans and other educational materials.

For example, Jodi Carlson began putting some of her content on the site and now earns $5,000 a month part-time.

This is a great way to get paid over and over for something you create once. If you enjoy sharing your passion, this can help both teachers and students.

13. Create a Local Experience

Another fun creative side hustle is to create a local tour. 

For instance, Alex Kenin hosts hundreds of “urban hiking” tours a year on the side from her day job — at $49 apiece!

What unique experience can you offer travelers?

It doesn’t even have to be a tour. Michele Mattix makes money hosting guided meditations through Airbnb Experiences. You can create your own experience, set your price, and Airbnb markets it to travelers.

14. Podcasting

Podcasting is a creative outlet for me. I get to come up with the show structure, choose the topics, share my ideas, and highlight the most interesting clips.

Plus, a large podcast following can translate into serious sponsorship dollars. It costs less than you think to start and The Side Hustle Show has honestly been a life-changing project for me.

And I’m not the only one — my friend Steve Young turned his part-time podcast into a full-time business with multiple streams of income.

15. Baking

Do people love your desserts? Maybe you could provide cakes, cookies, or cupcakes to some corporate event in town.

Jenn Fei has built a pretty serious following for her custom cookies—and sometimes sells out in just minutes!

16. Personal Chef Service

Could you picture yourself making meals in someone else’s kitchen? This could be a good way to monetize your cooking skills— without the risk of starting your own restaurant.

Some friends of ours pay $180-200 a week for meals delivered to their house.

HireaChef.com connects you with families and events looking for private chefs, or you might just post on Facebook or NextDoor.

With platforms like Eatwith, you could even begin charging to host meals.

17. Photography Service

This is my wife’s favorite side hustle, and earns her an extra $10,000 a year. Plus, it exercises a creative side of her brain that she doesn’t get from her engineering day job.

Another photographer, Vincent Pugliese, shared how “freelanced his way to freedom” and went from earning $30k a year to $30k in a day.

18. Teach an Online Course

One way to monetize your creativity is to teach others what you do. For example, Jacques Hopkins earns $30,000+ teaching an online piano course. Phil Ebiner built a huge online business teaching people photography and how to use the Adobe suite of products.

One place to sell your course is Udemy, an online education platform with thousands of on-demand courses. You can create your own course around a topic you’re an expert in and set your own tuition rate.

I did this several years ago with a self-publishing course and have earned over $25,000 in (mostly) passive income from it!

If you have an existing audience, you might be able to sell the course directly (without giving Udemy a cut). In this episode with Nate Dodson, he shares the framework he used to earn $40,000 a month teaching people how to start a microgreens business.

19. Event Entertainment

Brian McGovern is a party entertainer — he’s been practicing magic and performing since he was in high school. On The Side Hustle Show, he reported earning up to $10,000 a month doing something he loves.

Maybe you’re a photographer, comedian, DJ, celebrity lookalike, or musician.

Check out sites like GigSalad to set up your profile and get booked. 

20. Graphic Design Service

Quality graphic design is always an in-demand side hustle, and there have never been so many outlets on which to sell your skills.

The most popular design-focused site is 99designs, but you can also check out Crowdspring, DesignCrowd, or other freelance marketplaces.

21. Furniture Restoration

Side Hustle Nation member Ryan Cron earned extra money restoring and flipping furniture in his spare time.

His advice?

Start with dressers. “It’s basically a rectangle,” he explained.

That way, you can practice sanding and painting a relatively straightforward piece before tackling more challenging projects.

Look for inexpensive furniture at moving sales or on Facebook marketplace and clear out some space in your garage to do the work.

The other key is taking attractive pictures when you go to list the item for sale — make the piece look good!

22. Interior Design

Bringing a creative vision to life is super satisfying, and interior designers get to do it every day. With this creative side hustle, you’ll be in charge of selecting furniture, finishes, decor items, paint colors, and more.

If that sounds like fun, the prospect of earning $5,000-$10,000 per project may light you up even more! 

Most interior designers are using Instagram to showcase their portfolio and connect with potential clients.

23. Home Organizing Service

The Marie Kondo craze is still alive and well, but helping people set up an organized home always involves a bit of creativity. 

It’s like a real-life game of Tetris in some cases! If you love creating order out of chaos, this could be a rewarding side hustle to start.

Home organizers charge an average of $55 an hour, which makes it a strong creative side hustle.

24. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing might include:

Creating social media content/posts (text, images, videos)
Increasing followers/growing a community
Managing social media engagement and conversations
Moderating online communities
Commenting on social posts
Curating relevant content
Scheduling content in online tools like Buffer or Hootsuite
Running ads and campaigns
Increasing brand awareness
Generating leads

As you can see, there’s a lot of creativity required nearly every step of the way. 

For example, Pete Macleod (@petecodes) started a Twitter-writing service that now earns $10k/month. Creating Twitter and LinkedIn content was something he enjoyed doing anyway, so he began offering it as a service to other content creators.

25. Video Editing

Video editing is a great creative side hustle that you can do from home.

Typical rates may range from $50-250+ per video, depending on the industry and complexity. 

And it’s a business that can scale. For example, Justin Tan turned Video Husky, an unlimited video editing service, into a 7-figure business in just a few years.

What’s the Best Creative Side Hustle For You?

It’s totally possible to make money with a creative side hustle.

The best one is the one you take action on. Take a look at the options and get started today!

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.