A secondary source of income is an added boost to long-term financial goals. Many professionals quit their regular job once they start making a handsome profit with the side hustle. However, it is never easy to give time after a stressful day at work.
People spend the after-hours to relax and maintain a work-life balance. You cannot risk the mental exhaustion that can cause serious issues such as depression. Also, the relationships require some quality time together to keep the spark alive.
To your relief, these are some ideas to manage time outside the 9-5 job for a side hustle –
- Ask the Boss
Not every boss is a productivity freak that doesn’t support the employees in their personal endeavours. They will help you in some ways other than reducing the workload. This includes offering a different shift timing to help you make some more time.
You can ask for a time when the traffic is minimum to save some hours on commute. Also, a flexible schedule will give you more time to work on the side hustle. If possible, ask them for work from the home schedule at least once a week.
- Schedule Time
To make time, you need to work on a schedule to find the additional window for a side hustle. You will find some hours on completely unnecessary stuff that can better be utilised with some work. These include an hour late visit to the club for drinks.
It is easier to create a schedule than to fixate on it. There will be endless excuses and temptations to get away from the scheduled tasks. Keep the motivation high and find the little free time in your daily schedule to work on the project.
- Skip Some Tasks
Not every task is worth spending hours instead of hiring someone to do it. This includes building a website or writing appealing product descriptions. You can easily hire a freelancer for these tasks at a cheaper price.
It will give you time to focus on more important tasks, such as production and marketing. You can apply for a business loan if you are starting a business with no money and bad credit. It will help you cover all the additional cost with easy instalments.
- Wake Up Early
You can give an hour or two to the side hustle if you wake early. The distractions are minimum in the morning since everyone in your circle and neighbourhood will be sleeping. The productivity will increase since the complete focus will remain on the task at hand.
It will have some other benefits as well that includes timely check-in at work. This ensures you don’t have to spend extra hours at work because of running late. However, this requires a serious lifestyle change.
- Work During Travel
You can ditch the personal vehicle to spend some time on the additional work. Public transport will allow you enough comfort to complete some tasks. Also, you will save money on fuel expenses.
In many locations, driving through traffic jams and congested roads can be draining. You will save energy and time while riding the subway for work if the roads are extremely busy. However, there is no guarantee of vacant seats when you travel during common office hours.
- Use the Weekends and Lunch Breaks
People spend lunch hours to relax and recharge their mind for the remaining time. Eating takes only a few minutes, even for people with a heavy diet. You can use the rest for the side gig instead of gossips.
The weekends are the best time to spend hours on the assignment. You can use a few hours for other activities planned with your family or friends. The rest can still have a few hours of rest and work.
- Social Media Tools at Job
You can use social media tools now and then at your job during the little breaks in between. It won’t hurt your regular job as these breaks are essential for the focus. No one expects you to work 8 hours straight with complete focus on the computer screen.
There is a lot you can do within the 5-10 minutes windows on social media. The time can be used to create a new post, brainstorm for new ideas, or interact with the customers. Even tracking real-time engagement and other metrics are important aspects of your social media campaign.
- Manage the Side Hustle Outside
The sluggishness takes over the motivation once we enter the house after working the whole day. There are so many distractions combined with the comfort of your couch and bed. If you cannot resist them, you should complete the work for the side hustle outside.
You can spend some extra hours at the office to work on the side hustle after the allocated work is completed. You can use the coffee shops as well to spend an hour at work. Take a 15 minutes break before switching tasks to avoid mental and physical exhaustion.
Conclusion
To sum up, it is indeed difficult to make time for the side hustle with a demanding regular job and personal life. But with the right strategy, you can save an hour at least in the day to concentrate on the additional tasks. You should sacrifice some comfort to gain financial independence from this endeavour.
