5 Best Tips to Balance Your 9-5 while Building a Side Hustle

One of the questions I get asked the most is “How do I balance a 9-5 while building a side hustle”? Truth is the word balance is quite elusive as if we were to take this as a sea-saw type of scenario — one side would be up and the other down! I do the best I can to keep things going and I have learned a few tips and tricks throughout the years.

If you are one of those people with a steady 9-5 + a side hustle (or several) and have no intention of quitting either –this article is for you.

5 Best Tips to Balance Your 9-5 while Building a Side Hustle

Do not quit your day job is the first advice I have for you no matter what Life Guru or Motivational speaker tells you to do so. The thing about these people is that most have worked and have the necessary skills and expertise and they have been working at this thing for a few years in the back! Do not let any of these people convince you to quit your job with no real plan or prospect. Of course, this is dependent on your situation and lifestyle. If you have a support system that will be paying all your bills and ensure things are well with you then go right ahead for the rest of us — DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB.
Time Management is a must: I cannot say this enough — if you are gonna do this thing, it’s gonna require a lot of sacrifices. If you are a Social Butterfly who must be at every event, you might have to let some of those go. Myself for example when I decided to make the switch back to the 9-5 lifestyle things got a little crazy the first 6 months. I did not Blog at all for almost 9 months and finally decided something had to give and created a schedule. This schedule mapped out my billable hours at the day job and I would then dedicate 2 hours after work each day. This is not for the faint of heart or un-motivated! A great thing to do is “block out time” for tasks. Let’s say, you dedicate 30 minutes to Emails, here you will not browse the Internet aimlessly or be on Social Media. Wherever 30 minutes stop, that’s the number of emails you would have sent or received. This way you learn how long it takes to do things and you can then know how to better prioritize tasks. Try to get things done in a timely manner and never put off something for tomorrow that you can do today.
Set Goals: Setting goals are everything and they help you to stay on track. While setting these goals it’s important to know your “why”. Why did you start the 9-5 and why do you have a side hustle? Is this a thing that will be forever or will it be for a specific number of years? Maybe your goal is to purchase a home within 3 years and the quickest way to accomplish this is to have more income coming in. Goals can also be set to reflect dollar values — Is it that you want to make a specific amount of money each month? Maybe you want to pay off a debt. Whatever your goal, it’s important to know it early on and be intentional about accomplishing it.
Use your Weekends: Weekends for me would mean “writing days” where I blocked out an entire day to writing all content for Social Media, the Blog, and all Freelance Gigs. This works as there is no way I would be able to write full-length articles every day factoring research and so many other things. I also use the weekend to work on projects like my Content Marketing Plan + other re-branding material as this will take time and more dedicated hours on my part. Based on your Side hustle, the weekends might mean purchasing equipment or any other big task or project that needs a huge chunk of your time.
Arrive at your 9-5 Early: Work starts at 9 am and I’m usually in the office by 7 am — crazy I know but I go to bed early (most nights) so I can wake up at 5 am to work on my Lifestyle Brand! This as I mentioned above will take sacrifice and preparation. I lay out my outfit and make-up tools and pack my lunch from the night before. I’m able to edit Blog Posts, Publish Social Media Posts and Send and Receive Emails. Please do this in a sensible and professional manner and do not work on your side hustle during business hours. Have a cut off time for when you start working on the side hustle while giving yourself enough time to be settled and ready to work efficiently at the 9-5.

I really do hope these tips helped at least one person, as my main goal with this Blog is to add value to your lives by sharing what I know through experience and research. If you have a question and would like to learn more, send us an email at hautepeople@yahoo.com.

#5 Best Tips to Balance Your 9-5 while Building a Side Hustle

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