How To Change Your Life In An Hour A Day
From 9–5 to full-time creator (My one-hour escape plan)
✤ GUEST POST ✤
It’s been a long time since I’ve featured a guest post here, and that’s intentional. I’m very selective about whose voice appears on this publication.
But when
reached out, I knew this was one of those rare yeses.I’ve learned so much from his writing, and his story of becoming a writer and building a living from it has genuinely inspired me. His approach aligns with my values and how I’m building my own business.
I’m excited to share his piece with you ↓
Freedom didn’t begin when I quit my job.
It began while I still had one.
One quiet hour before work changed everything. The coffee was stronger than my confidence that morning. Barely six. The house wrapped in that soft, golden hush only early mornings get. The kettle clicked. The air smelled of coffee and maybe—finally—possibility.
That hush before the world wakes? It’s the only time the day still feels like it’s yours.
That day on Jan 2nd 2023, I made a decision:
One hour. Before work.
No excuses. No notifications. Just me, a blinking cursor, and the smell of caffeine cutting through the dark. At the time, I was clocking into a 9–5 I didn’t love. Meetings that didn’t matter. Problems I didn’t care about. I kept telling myself I’d start my real work once life slowed down.
Spoiler: it never did.
So that one hour became my rebellion. My quiet protest. My proof that the day didn’t own me yet. At first, it felt pointless. My words went unread. Drafts gathered digital dust. I wondered if I was delusional.
Then one morning, instead of deleting, I hit publish. Heart hammering. It was messy. Too honest. A small confession about staying resilient when no one seemed to care. That post reached 1,700 readers and earned $437. Not life-changing money. But it cracked something open.
Proof that sixty quiet minutes could move my life forward more than ten noisy hours at my job.
How one hour changed everything
Within weeks, the inbox started talking back.
“Can you teach me how you’re doing this?”
Then came the magazine invites. The coaching requests. Little miracles, each arriving before my morning coffee cooled. All from that one hour.
In 7 months, I wrote 100+ articles. The early ones? Awful. But that’s exactly how the start should be. The goal wasn’t brilliance. It was reps. When you create that much, you can’t stay bad. And you definitely can’t stay invisible.
When writers tell me they feel unseen, I ask:
“How much have you published in the last six months?”
The answer’s always the same: not enough. You don’t need twelve-hour days. You need one protected pocket of time — focused, sacred, non-negotiable. That single rebellion changed everything for me.
Soon my side income outgrew my salary. I started cutting the dead weight: first the projects that drained me, then the meetings that led nowhere. By 3 p.m., I’d close my laptop and feel something I hadn’t felt in years. Peace. Bit by bit, the one-hour experiment rewired my career and, quietly, my identity.
One focused hour can rewrite your entire life.
The lie we tell ourselves about time
“I’ll chase my dream when I have more time.”
Sounds logical. It’s not. You don’t need more time. You need defended time. One guarded hour beats ten distracted ones. Every single day that ends in “y.” When something matters, you don’t squeeze it in.
You barricade it.
Think of it as a locked gate in your calendar. Where your future self gets to breathe while the noise stays out. You’ll never find time. You have to steal it back — with audacity.
Start with one hour. Go to bed early. You won’t miss that extra Netflix episode; I promise. Your future’s worth more than the next cliffhanger. Write before the world wakes. Before your phone turns you into someone else’s employee.
Transformation hides in the moments no one sees.
The slow way to freedom
The first nine months? Brutal.
Some mornings I had to drag myself to the desk. I’d stare at the cursor, bargaining: Just one decent line, then you can quit. Some days, that line never came. But I showed up anyway. That hour wasn’t always productive, but it was sacred. It proved I could keep a promise to myself, even when no one was clapping.
Two years later — 35 000 followers, a full-time income, and a life that feels like mine — writing is second nature. But only because I earned it the slow way. In the quiet. Without applause. That’s the price most people won’t pay. Not because they can’t, but because consistency doesn’t trend.
Here’s the secret: Consistency builds identity.
Every hour you honour your future self, you become someone new. And one day, you look up and realise — the thing that once felt impossible now feels inevitable.
The hour that buys your freedom
I’ve built an email list of 15,000.
Making money feels effortless now. But it took 734 straight days of showing up when no one was watching. Most people wait decades to “buy back their time.” They dream of quitting their job, of finally having space to create. Once life slows down. Once the money’s right. Once the timing’s perfect.
But you don’t have to wait.
You can start today. With one hour. You don’t need a grand plan. You just need to show up for your future self before the world starts demanding you. One hour doesn’t sound like much. But do it for nine months. Consistently, quietly, without expecting applause. And it becomes your most powerful asset.
Because freedom doesn’t arrive with a resignation letter.
It arrives sixty quiet minutes at a time. Until the rest of your life rearranges itself around them. If you can commit to one hour, you can change every other one. The hour you give to your future is the one that finally gives back.
500 words a day.
5 days a week.
50 weeks.
That’s how you buy back your life.
I’ve gained 15,000 Subscribers in 2 years. If you want my 5-step writing system. Join 10,173 other writers and sign up for my free course here:
Thank you, Derek!
This is exactly the kind of story I needed to hear when I was still figuring things out—and I have a feeling many of you needed it too.
💬 Now I’m curious: What’s your one hour? Have you found it yet, or are you still negotiating with yourself about when the “right time” will be?
Let’s talk about it in the comments below.
 | A guest post by
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Amazing that you featured Derek in a guest post. His story is really inspiring, and he teaches in a very clear way and is very generous with his knowledge.
I'm struggling to find the one hour, because in the morning my brain is just too slow for creative writing, but by the time those creative juices start to flow later in the day, I think I use up most of my energy on daily tasks, admin and family, so it's harder to commit and to clear my mind from all the clutter of the day. I will keep experimenting with different times, something has to work.
I love this concept! 1 hour a day is very doable for all of us; we just have to choose to do it. This is such an inspirational post. Thank you so much for sharing it. I am new to Substack and still learning its ins and outs. But I do have dedicated time daily written in my schedule. I need to know HOW to use it productively to grow my community.