Are you a full-time employee and a full-time side hustler? It’s a lot to handle, I know.
Having a side hustle is fun and exciting but most of the time doesn’t pay your bills (hence why it’s still just on the side) so a full time or part time income is usually still needed in the beginning stages.
However, usually the goal is to eventually move to full time side hustle so you’re constantly putting in 110% to try to get it off the ground. It can feel like an uphill battle.
If you’re not organized, it can lead to a serious burnout.
In this post I want to share with you my top strategies to balancing a full time job with a growing side hustle.
1. Early Mornings or Late Nights – You Pick.
Early mornings are going to become your best friend. I’ve found one of my most productive times of day is between 5:30am and 7:30am. It sounds crazy at first, but when you start your day by accomplishing two hours’ worth of side hustle work before you even start your day, you’ll feel soo pumped for the rest of your day!
Of course, depending on your schedule, you may not have the option of working before you head to your full time job, so you’ll have to put in some hours after you get home.
In my opinion, it’s better to try to sneak in the time early in the morning vs. late at night because after a full day at work, you are likely feeling burnt out and tired AF and it’s all too easy to put it off.
When I wake up, I’m super tired for the first 10 minutes or so, but settle in really quick and become laser focused and super productive. Give it a try for a full week, and ease into the transition if you are having trouble waking up.
2. Remove Distractions.
When you only have a few hours a day to work on your passion project, you’ll want to limit distractions as much as humanly possible.
This means the phone goes on silent (or leaves the room), you are forbidden to think about your day job, and you have a clean space so that you aren’t distracted by a mess.
Make it a point to remove distractions before you get started because you can easily get sucked into the social media spiral and 30 minutes passes in an instant.
I also try to limit the tasks that bring me onto social media until I’m almost out of time. How many times have you gone on Facebook or Instagram to check one thing, and got so distracted that you forgot what the heck you were even doing. Time waster! Avoid it until last so that if you get sucked in it only wastes a few of your minutes.
3. Make a Plan Ahead of Time.
Especially if you’re getting up early, you’re going to want a plan in place because let’s face it, your brain doesn’t work that well at 5:30 in the morning.
If you have the exact tasks that you want to accomplish figured out, you can easily make a coffee and get straight down to business.
4. Batching is King.
If you’ve never heard of batching, I’m about to change your life. Batching means doing all of one thing at once instead of doing a bunch of different things one after the other.
So in your business, batching would be sitting down and prepping a month of Pinterest scheduling at once, or two weeks of Instagram posts at once, instead of doing these tasks one at a time.
When you’re in the groove of a task, it’s easier to just do multiple than it is to switch gears and start a new task.
Every time you switch tasks you waste a few minutes settling in and when it comes to side hustling, ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat.
5. Automation for Massive Time Savings.
If you have a side hustle, there’s a good chance there’s things in your business that can be automated. Your social media, your sales funnels, your post scheduling, all of these time sucking tasks can be done on autopilot and you can focus on the actual content of your business.
There is tons of information out there that can help you automate your business. Spending a little time learning the ropes is an investment and you will reap what you sow.
6. Don’t Work Yourself to Burnout.
You’re human, and sometimes it sucks to admit it, but you need to take breaks or you will hit the brick wall of burnout. Burnout is like your body’s way of saying Hello!? and a reminder that self-care is seriously important.
Take some time for you, away from work and away from your side hustle regularly to recharge. I work hard all week, waking up early and wasting no time during the day, but I make sure to chill on the weekends. You can’t go hard seven days a week, that’s just asking for trouble.
And in my experience, when I take the time to rest on the weekends, it gets me even more amped up to hustle during the week.
And there you have it, my top six tips to balance a full time job and your side hustle. It seems like a lot of work, but those who have a big enough ‘why’ know that it will all pay off in the end.