The Constrained Creator Advantage
Building an online business with limited time
Most advice on building an online business assumes you have 20 to 40 hours per week to spare.
Post three times daily on social media.
Film daily videos.
Build five revenue streams.
Launch a podcast.
Grow your email list.
Network constantly.
Create a course.
Write a book.
The advice is everywhere, and it’s exhausting.
What if you only have 10 hours per week, or less? I know it is a real situation for many as I have gotten that specific questions from my email subscribers about this.
Every question was about not having time to spare for writing or building your online presence each day.
For me, it started on a Tuesday forenoon, 5 years ago. Coffee on the living room table, newspaper in hand, the house quiet. I was recovering after a foot surgery, and that became my launch window. You can read a bit more about it in this article.
Fast forward to today.
Now I am consistently writing and publishing on Substack.
Your question probably are what if I am in a full-time job with serious commitments outside of work, and no time available to being a full-time writer and content creator?
Most advice tells you to quit your job, scale back your life and go all in.
I’m here to tell you that’s wrong.
The Myth of the Full-Time Creator
The creator economy is built on a myth: that you need endless hours to succeed.
Scroll through any “how I built my online business” thread and you’ll see the same pattern. Someone quit their job, went full-time on content, posted 10 times per day, and hit six figures in 18 months.
Good for them and I truly salute them, but that´s not you, and it’s for sure not me.
I’m 60 years old. I work full-time in project management. I’m a military pilot. I train and instruct karate 10 - 16 hours per week, outside of competitions where the whole weekend is dedicated to it.
I have a life outside of content creation and I intend to keep it that way.
I have between 5 to 10 hours per week to build this, maybe 12 hours on a good week.
And you know what? That’s enough if I play my cards right.
Your Constraint Is Your Competitive Advantage
Here’s the thing most people miss; Limited time forces clarity.
When you have 40 hours per week, you can afford to waste 20 of them. You can experiment with every platform, chase every trend, and throw content at the wall to see what sticks.
When you have less than 10 hours per week, you cannot afford to waste a single one. You must cut all the noise, all the bright and shiny promises, and choose:
One platform (not five)
One niche (not three)
One content system (not a dozen)
You must prioritize depth over breadth, quality over quantity, leverage over labor.
In one sentence; depth beats volume.
A 25-year-old with 40 hours per week will outpace you on volume. They’ll publish more, post more, and show up more often.
But they cannot compete with your decades of experience. They cannot replicate the lessons you’ve learned from 60 years of discipline, problem-solving, and sustained performance.
Your constraint in relation to time available and your life experience, is your edge.
The Three Principles That Make This Work
If you’re going to build an online business with 10 hours per week or less, you need three principles to survive, keep it simple, hurry slowly and live fully.
And within those principles the following guidelines;
1. Leverage, Not Labor
Every piece of content must serve multiple purposes.
A cornerstone blog post becomes:
An SEO-optimized post that drives traffic for months
A LinkedIn article that builds your professional network
Three Twitter threads that grow your social presence
Six Substack Notes that keep you visible
A lead magnet that builds your email list
One input. Five outputs. That’s leverage.
If you’re creating content that only lives in one place and serves one purpose, you’re wasting time. But keep in mind not to spread yourself in the beginning until you get good traction and stay true to one platform, like Substack.
Only after you have built a solid foundation on your chosen platform and have a subscriber base, start to expand.
2. Systems, Not Hustle
Motivation is unreliable while systems are forever.
You cannot rely on daily inspiration to show up and create. Just think about how you feel like working on a day with low energy.
To counter it, you need a system that runs almost on autopilot.
My weekly system:
Sunday: Plan the week, batch-create Substack Notes, research and outline next post (90 min)
Monday: Write or outline (2 hours)
Tuesday: Edit or draft (2 hours)
Wednesday: Publish (1 hour)
Thursday: Repurpose (1-2 hours)
Total: 7-10 hours per week, every week, no exceptions.
The system decides what I do and when.
3. Depth, Not Breadth
You cannot be everywhere, so be somewhere that matters.
One single, strong niche beats three weak ones. One platform done well beats five platforms done poorly.
My niche: Leadership, performance, and systems for time-constrained professionals who refuse to burn out but want to write.
My platform: Substack (with cross-posting to Medium for SEO).
Posts on my Substack publication and daily Notes. That’s it.
No TikTok. No YouTube. No daily Instagram stories.
I go deep on one thing, and it works.
A bit further down the road, I plan to start cross-posting to LinkedIn.
A Realistic Framework for 7 to 10 Hours Per Week
Here’s the framework I use:
Monthly Cornerstone Post (1500-2000 words)
Published Friday, first week of each month
Deep, valuable, SEO-optimized
Time investment: 4-6 hours
Weekly Mini-Content (250-500 words)
Published Wednesday, every week
Quick insights, frameworks, or stories
Time investment: 1-2 hours each
Substack Notes (7 x per week)
Short observations, questions, or tips
Community engagement and visibility
Time investment: 30-60 minutes total per week (Notes batched on Sunday)
Total: 7-10 hours per week.
This cadence is sustainable. I can maintain it while working full-time, training for karate competitions, and living my life.
And it’s effective. One cornerstone post per month is 12 high-quality posts per year. Add 52 mini-posts and 300+ Notes, and you have a body of work that compounds.
What Success Looks Like in Year 1
Forget the six-figure launch stories. Here’s what realistic success looks like:
By Month 3:
100 subscribers
Published 3 cornerstone posts, 12 mini-posts, 84+ Notes
Established a rhythm you can sustain
By Month 6:
250-500 subscribers
Identified and narrowed down your top 3 content themes
Launched a handful of lead magnets
By Month 12:
1000-2000 subscribers
$500-1000/month in revenue (paid newsletter tier or digital product)
A proven system you can scale or maintain
This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. This is a sustainable asset.
In 12 months, you’ll have 50+ published posts, 1000+ subscribers, and a system that works.
In 24 months, you’ll have options.
Scale the business.
Launch a course.
Write a book.
Transition to part-time work.
In 36 months, you’ll have a legacy.
A body of work.
A community.
Income streams that work while you sleep.
Why This Is Sustainable
Most creators burn out in 6-12 months. They start strong, post daily, and collapse under the weight of their own ambition.
This framework is different, because it’s built for the long game.
It respects your capacity.
You’re not sacrificing your job, your health, or your commitments. You’re building around them.
It compounds.
Every post you publish works for you forever. SEO traffic grows. Your archive deepens and your positioning strengthens.
It scales down.
If life gets busy, you can drop to one cornerstone per month, one or to mini-posts, and still maintain momentum.
You have heard it before and you will hear it again;
This is not a sprint.
It’s a marathon.
And you’re built for marathons.
Your Next Move
If you’re a time-constrained beginner or professional who wants to build something meaningful online without burning out, start here:
Pick your niche (main topic). One clear positioning statement.
Who do you help?
What problem do you solve? (Tip: Look at your life and the experience you have from it)
Pick your platform. One primary platform, and add an autoresponder. I recommend Substack and Kit (owned list, minimal friction).
Build your system. Weekly rhythm. Batched content. Guardrails and capacity limits.
Publish your first post. Don’t wait for perfect. Just start.
You have 7 to 10 hours per week. That’s enough.
Your constraint is your advantage and your experience is your edge.
In two sentences:
Keep it simple, hurry slowly, build once and leverage forever.
That will allow you to live life fully at the same time.
Ready to build your own Constrained Creator system? Subscribe and look out for the free “10-Hour Creator Blueprint” and get the exact weekly schedule, content calendar, and checklist I use to build my Substack business in 10 hours per week.
The blueprint will be ready to download in a couple of weeks. Subscribe to get it delivered directly to your inbox.
Very detailed and helpful!
Be honest:
How many hours per week do you really have for writing and building your Substack?
0–3
3–7
7–10
10+
Drop your number below, and I’ll reply with how I’d structure those hours.