Finding your passion and growing it into a successful business takes a special kind of person especially when it requires navigating the demands of a 9-5 as well as personal obligations. I use to think the reason people grew to be successful was either because they were obnoxiously smart or that they were simply privileged enough to find themselves on that side of the lane. It was hard to believe they’d ever experienced failure or had to sacrifice much to gain the ground before them. This was obviously an unintelligent observation on myself, but one I know others have had as well.
Though everyone’s story is different, I’ve also realized that it is still possible to make time for what we value even when that means finding more time to spend working towards growing your side hustle.
When it comes to taking your side hustle to the next level, self discipline needs to be at the forefront of it all. Here are 9 ways to make time for your side hustle:
- Stop Sleeping In. Defining your sleep schedule during both the week and weekend can help in dedicating more time to working on the growth of your business. Sleep is obviously important, however, oversleeping is hurting your ability to meet your productivity goals. Studies show that getting a minimum of 7 hours of sleep is all thats required to have the energy needed to be productive. Instead of sleeping a full 8 hours, shave an hour off your normal sleep schedule and use to work on your passion projects either in the morning or staying up late at night when your distractions are limited.
- Task Batching. This is not to be confused with multitasking. The concept of batching is to lump tasks that are similar in nature and work on them at once rather than deter minutes/hours of your time throughout the day to respond and get them completed. For example, meal planning takes a lot of time and energy, especially if your lifestyle requires healthier options. Instead of spending 2-3 hours planning meals each night, you could save time by cooking larger amounts of prepared meals less often. You’ll have more time to dedicate during the week to your side hustle that you would have previously spent cooking. Pre planning meals also helps not having to spend time thinking about what you will cook.
- Get Resourceful & Automate. Tools are great for getting your business organized and streamlined for optimizing time and producing results. If your side hustle requires maintaining an online social presence, there are a number of great tools and apps to help automate your feeds to appear active during certain time slots, making it easy for you to focus on your day job while still progressing at your side hustle. I use tools like Apphi, Planoly & Tailwind to automate most of my Instagram and interest activity. This way I can plan in advance and let things practically run themselves.
- Examine Your Habits. Most times our habits get in the way of our ability to master time and be productive. Being honest with ourselves about bad habits and how much time we spend actually working on our side hustle goals compared to the time we actually spend watching tv or scrolling aimlessly on social media will most certainly help you find ways to free up some time and rededicate to some of your more valuable priorities.
- Re-Arrange Your 9-5. Commuting to work can be time consuming and if your work hours fall within high traffic times, your travels can become even more unpredictable. Instead of spending valuable time in the car that you could be using to work on projects, determine what times are least populated with commuters and check in with your boss to see if there may be some space for flexibility. You may be able to go in an hour early/later and stay an hour later or leave an hour earlier to miss some of the traffic and have enough time to work on your side gig.
- Create Routines. I use to think I was most productive in the evenings afterwork, however, most recently I’ve learned that I am actually more productive in the mornings. So, this is when I’ve decided to tackle the most important tasks first when it comes to my side hustle. From here, I’ve created a routine of making it a habit of getting up an hour early before preparing to head to the day job so that when I get home I can work on less mentally demanding projects since they would have already been completed that morning. My evenings are then dedicated to light brainstorming or tasks that require less brain power and planning for the next day.
- Don’t Skip Lunch. If you needed a reason before to actually utilize your lunch break for yourself, this would be it. Whether you have 30 minutes or an hour, your side hustle can benefit from this time as well. Instead of working through your lunch hour, determine how valuable allowing this time to your side hustle could be. Catch up on emails from clients or brands, taking phone calls, or following up on projects yo’ve had outsourced. Utilize this time so that when you do clock out you can focus on some of the larger projects that need more time and attention.
- Create a Schedule Sometimes its not about making more time but using the time we have more effectively and being smart in our pursuits. If your day job is pretty consistent in the time it requires of your then you can easily schedule those tasks according to the time frame. Once you have all of your tasks scheduled, fill in the remaining available time slots with tasks associated with your side hustle and other personal priorities. Stick to this schedule as much as possible.
How are you making time for your side hustle?