The popularity of having a side hustle has boomed in recent years. There are many reasons for this, from improved tech to stagnant salaries. Whatever your reason for having a side hustle alongside your regular job, you’ll no doubt be aware of how difficult it is to manage both.
The chief problem is a lack of time. However, whilst it is difficult, it is possible to maintain a successful side hustle. We want to share some tips on how to do it here.
Meal prep
The last thing anyone wants to do after a day at work it is to slave over a hot stove, especially if you have your other freelance side hustle work to do too. That’s why so many people turn to convenience foods such as ready meals or takeaways.
It’s understandable, but it’s bad news for your health, concentration and productivity. This type of food will make you feel tired and sluggish if it becomes a regular habit.
If you don’t have the time to create a home-cooked meal every night, why not give meal prepping a go? Meal preppers typically set aside some time on a Sunday to prepare and cook a week’s worth of meals which can then be stored and then quickly reheated.
Outsource
If you don’t have time to do everything and are willing to invest a bit of cash, outsourcing is your friend.
Get rid of all the tasks you don’t want to do or know would be better carried out by a specialist by outsourcing.
Hate marketing? Get a social media manager or content marketer. Not a fan of accounting? Hire an accountant to take all that tedious bookkeeping and tax return completion out of your hands.
Automate
Save time by automating as much as you can. Try linking up your bank account to bookkeeping software and then you won’t have to manually update your records. Get in the habit of scheduling social media posts or email campaigns in advance too, so you only need to do it once a week/month.
Turn distractions into rewards
Netflix and social media can be huge time stealers but no one wants to give them up entirely. If you know you have a TV binging weakness, (who doesn’t?) rather than banning yourself, (which never works) schedule time specifically for it.
Save the TV binge for the end of the week or after you’ve hit a big deadline. This way, you can still do the things you want without wasting work time and you’ll give yourself a motivating reward system.
Get up early
It’s not for everyone, but plenty of people benefit from early wakeup times like 5am. This is a great part of the day because no one else is up so there are fewer distractions. It also gives you a massive sense of accomplishment to have done something productive before anyone has had their morning coffee. (Shift workers, we’re sorry).
Take advantage of your productive hours
In contrast to the previous point, if early wakeups are not your thing, don’t force them!
Everyone works differently at different times of the day. There are endless blog posts out there telling you a 5am wakeup is essential to success, but not everyone is built for 5am.
If you are more productive in the morning, great. But if you’re more productive in the evening, don’t force yourself into day-long fatigue just because the internet says you need to be a morning person.
Instead, take advantage of your productive hours of the day. Assign yourself the hardest tasks during your most productive hours to get the most out of your productivity spike.
We hope these simple tips help you manage your time more effectively. We’d love to hear tips from other side hustlers out there. Please leave a comment below with your ideas – they might just help someone else!
