The 5-9 Alchemist | Balance your 9-5, side business, and personal life in 7 days

My wife used to eat dinner alone most nights in 2023. I'd be at my desk, working until midnight, building a side-hustle that was slowly eating my life.

I was working 70+ hours a week, every single week

I had a full-time corporate job and was building my copywriting side-hustle. I'd wake up at 5 AM, meditate, cold shower, work on client projects, commute to my job, come home at 5:30 PM, and work until midnight. Some nights my wife was already asleep before I came to bed.

I was the guy with the lame excuse: "I wish I could… but I'm too busy."

(Looking back, I realize my friends probably caught on because I suddenly stopped getting invited out.)

I tried everything to fix it:
- To-do lists
- Pomodoro method
- Every productivity app under the sun
- Waking up even earlier (gave up because I was nodding off at work)
- SMART goals, Kanban, journaling, affirmations

Nothing worked.

Then I had a lightbulb moment. (Sounds cliché, I know)

In October 2023, there was an FDA audit at my corporate job. For 3 days, I watched auditors examine every aspect of our operations, questioning inefficiencies and highlighting redundancies.

One evening, slumped over my messy desk, worrying about the copywriting project I still had to finish when I got home, a question popped into my head:

"What if I audited my own life?"

The next morning, I grabbed a cheap notebook and made two columns:
- Left: 1-hour time blocks
- Right: What I was actually doing each hour

I set an alarm to go off every hour. Each time it rang, I wrote down what I was doing at that exact moment.

I tracked every single hour for 7 days.

What I discovered shocked me:

- I was spending an hour each day on "research" that was actually aimless browsing
- More time than I thought scrolling Instagram and Twitter
- 65% of my "productive time" was spent on low-impact busywork

I wasn't lacking time. I was lacking focus.

I wasn't failing because I lacked discipline. I was failing because every productivity system I tried was built for someone with a full day - not someone squeezing 3 hours between dinner and midnight.

Within 7 days of auditing myself:

- I took an entire Saturday off for the first time in months
- My wife stopped eating dinner alone—we rediscovered Friday date nights
- I stopped working past 8 PM on weekdays

All without taking a hit on my side-hustle income.

That's what The 5-9 Alchemist teaches.

It's a 7-day email course (one module per day) that shows you how to:

- Audit your time like an FDA inspector
- Build a distraction-free "Focus Den"
- Cut ruthlessly (the 80/20 of your day)
- Make decisions like a CEO (the "Meta-Decision" principle)
- Build "Conveyor Belt" systems for your best work

It's designed specifically for side-hustlers - people juggling a full-time job AND building something on the side. Because most productivity systems are made for full-time entrepreneurs or 9-5 employees… not people living the double life.

I'm launching this today because:

1. I want feedback from people who are actually in the trenches
2. This is beta access at an introductory price
3. I believe helping others succeed is the fastest way for me to succeed

I'd love your honest feedback:

- Does this resonate with your experience?
- What would make this more valuable for you?
- What questions do you have that I didn't answer?

If you're juggling a 9-5 and building something on the side, this was built specifically for you - not for full-time founders who have the whole day.

Thanks for checking this out.

My wife used to eat dinner alone most nights in 2023. I'd be at my desk, working until midnight, building a side-hustle that was slowly eating my life.