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I’ve been multi-faceted since I can last remember, little wonder I like the idea of discussing how to balance life with your side hustle. Or how to balance your side hustle with life’s obligations.
Growing up, I loved writing, acting, drawing, reading, styling hair, painting and so on.
I also tried out make up for a while even though I don’t really play around with those these days. I can keep writing about all the things I love to do but I’m sure you get the point.
When I’m not spending time updating this blog, you’ll find me working with a client, writing for other platforms, taking pictures alongside my husband for obaallen.com. I happen to be a second shooter for him these days and I love it!
You’ll also find me helping out small businesses with marketing, branding and social media management. I work a full-time job as well and I’m always looking out to expand my career in my industry.
Several years ago, I remember I was told to do just one thing. And I struggled because that wasn’t really me. About twenty years later, I figured that I could be anything I wanted to be.
Download: 30 Side Hustles for Full-Time Workers
And when I realized this, I asked: “why not explore all that there is to me?”
So that’s why I will never take the back seat on trying to do anything that gives me joy.
I’m not surprised when I have people ask me: “How are you able to do it all, it must be stressful?”
The truth is that it’s not easy to balance a side hustle with a full-time job but it takes practice and ‘balance’ means different things to different people.
I had to learn the hard way to find what ‘balance’ meant to me as a person.
In this post, I’ll be sharing tips that work for me. I might not have all the answers, so please feel free to share other tips you use in the comment section and let’s learn from each other.
1. Respect your full-time job
This subheading sucks but I just wanted it to be as explicit as possible. If your full-time job pays most of your bills depending on the stage you are in, it’s important for you to respect the hours you are billing.
So when it’s time for work, dedicate your time to that. Ensure that you don’t leave any task hanging. You can always make use of your break or walking hours to maybe respond to emails or schedule posts for the promotion of your side hustle, etc.
I think this helps with balance because you are aware of what your priorities are at every given point in time.
Read: How To Discover Your Side Hustle (With 6 Easy Tips)
2. Determine a schedule that works for you
When you have a side hustle it’s important that you use a schedule that works best for you. For example, when I first started blogging, I was putting so much pressure on myself trying to write and publish articles every day.
It wasn’t long before I realized that I was burning out. So I changed my routine by writing at least two posts per week and figured out the best day to write blog posts.
As soon as you figure a schedule that works well for you, you can then add this to your mobile calendar for instant reminders.
3. Batching helps a great deal
Depending on what your side hustle is, you can find similar tasks that you can lump into a day or a certain number of hours. You can do this in two ways.
For example, you can decide to do social media promotions on Fridays and maybe use Mondays as a day to find new clients/ improve your business.
An example for me when it comes to batching is that I typically use a day to schedule/ automate posts on various social media platforms so that it keeps running all through the week. Then I check in from time to time to interact.
I know that I love to be on Instagram so I sometimes prefer to post content there on the go for that. I don’t think I’m capable of posting across all social media accounts all the time, so I find that this works for me personally.
Read: If You Can Follow A Recipe, You Can Sell Your Side Hustle
3. Spend your weekends wisely
The hard truth is that weekdays might not be enough to accomplish all the goals for your side hustle. It’s important for you to be intentional about how you spend your time.
Please understand that you still have to rest well so that you can put in your best to your side hustle. After a workday, you might feel exhausted, so you can try out less stressful activities like interacting with clients/ audience, sharing old articles, etc.
And you can use weekends for more serious work to be done, like marketing, thinking up ideas, etc. Do what works best for you all the same.
Read: Side Hustles That Might Be More Profitable Than You Thought
4. Delegate tasks
It took me a while to realize that to be able to balance things out I had to delegate certain tasks. The tasks that you delegate doesn’t have to be related to your side hustle. It can be anything that affects your life and can create some time for you to spend on your business.
For example, I no longer visit stores for my grocery shopping and I find that I spend less time/ hours walking through aisles. I’ve also been able to save more because I no longer get to spend on the impulse. I’ve also been eating better because online shopping makes me scrutinize what is going into my body.
If you reside in the GTA you should check out Fresh City Farms for organic food that you’ll love. I’ve had no regrets so far. Use my link to receive $25 off, this is not in any way sponsored.
Also, toiletries and general shopping can be done online as it will save some time to spend on your side hustle.
You can delegate cleaning of your house, cooking, laundry, etc.
5. Invest/ outsource where you can
One advantage of working a full-time job alongside a side hustle is that you have a financial backup, I suppose.
If you know some areas of your business that stresses you out then you can pay someone to do the hard work for you and save you time to run your business.
For example, I help clients run their social media platforms and marketing at a small fee as they find it a bit demanding. I also help some clients run their blogs for their business and that way they are able to focus on the core of their business. It’s a win-win situation!
P.S. Download the guide on 30 Side Hustles for Full-Time Workers
Hopefully, you’ll find these tips useful and you can work on your side hustle even with a full-time job.
Please share other ways you’ve been able to balance your side hustle with a full-time job. Sharing is caring! Remember to subscribe to the blog to receive exclusive updates in your inbox! More side hustle tips will be shared.
If you need my services for your business, please reach out to me… [email protected]
