How to Balance a Side Hustle and a Full-Time Job
We want to do it all, and we want to do it well. But, at the end of the day we only have so many hours to get things done. When you’re working full-time on your in-person job, the last thing you want to do is go home and do more work.Though the reasons a full-timer might take on a side hustle vary widely, the challenges are universal. Whether you’re building a side-hustle in hopes of leaving your full-time job, or just pursuing a passion and extra income in addition to your corporate role, there are ways to make them work together more effectively.
1. Is It Worth It? Let me work it
Before diving in, make sure that honey pot is sweet enough to justify committing a good chunk of your otherwise “free time” to your side gig.
Bear in mind, of course, that there are plenty of ways to measure its worth, and it’s important to cultivate a clear understanding of your personal objectives for a given project. It might pay handsomely, build your experience in a new skill or discipline you hope to break into full time, satisfy your passions, or simply finance your creative but costly hobby. Whatever the objective, make sure the gig’s incentives are well aligned.
2. Make Time—Don’t Find it.
With competing responsibilities, it won’t always be easy to get everything done. When you have a deadline or a dollar amount you need to hit, carve out your designated work time in advance. While that advice falls under the “water is wet” category on one front, it will also help you maintain some healthy boundaries and avoid disruptions to your personal life, in turn making your side hustle more sustainable.
Plus, if you proactively allocate your work hours, you’ll use them more efficiently and be less prone to dawdling in Instagram rabbit holes, procrastinatory zit popping sessions, and other distractions that can turn a two-hour project into a five-hour blotchy, FOMO’d out mess.You’ll also come to understand the actual value of your time more clearly, which will help you set rates, goals, and expectations in future projects. Maintaining structure around your side gig will help stave off burnout and over-commitment once you calibrate how much work is realistically manageable for you.
3. Use Weekends Wisely
After a long day at work, it takes near-superhuman will to come home and work another few hours on a side business. Instead, its good to separate tasks for your side hustle into two categories: Weekend activities and weekday activities.
Use your weekends were for heavy-lifting, such as planning, content creation, and more mentally-intensive activities. You’ll have larger blocks of time available to you to get things done, and you’ll be able to dedicate more attention and effort since you won’t be drained from a full day of work already. This allows you to make big chunks of progress at once.
Then, your weekdays can be used for ‘easier’ tasks, such as sharing your pre-written content, responding to client inquiries, and engaging with your audience,” Zhou says. These quick activities are more manageable when your time and energy are being tapped by your full-time job, allowing you to make progress with the resources available, and to keep moving your business forward.
4. Leverage Your Income To Create Growth
Businesses grow in one of two ways. You either put in time to make it grow organically, or you spend money on advertising and other means to buy growth.
When you’re in a job, you have more money than you have time, so use your money
You can use some of the income from your full-time role to help buy services and products, or the time of others, to create growth in your business. This could come in the form of advertising, software, sales support, tech support, coaching, an assistant or something else; whatever moves your particular business forward even while you’re on the clock.
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