Well, this officially marks the start of sidebysidedigital.com, the first blog post.
Now, you may be saying to yourself “what? first blog post. How can she possible know anything about side hustling?!?” Well, let me tell you my friend – I know plenty.
I have been working a 9-5 jobs since I graduated from University (proud alumni of UW) and basically since the get-go I have had a side hustle. Most of the years were spent doing website development and marketing consulting work, and I still take on a project here and there, as I really do love it. November 2015 saw the launch of my ecommerce side project, Conviction Clothing. And, of course, the exciting start of my online empire building blog!
I have learned a lot over the years of how to manage side hustling, making sure you don’t burn out and to have fun doing it. For me, side contract work was never to pay the bills, my husband and mine’s full time jobs have that covered. Side hustling was two-fold. One, it gives me a bit of pocket cash and second (and more importantly) I just really love doing the projects.
[bctt tweet="Side hustling is easy - said no one ever #sidehustle #becauseican #letsdothis"]
Support Network is Key
As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. The same will go for your side hustle, especially if you want it to become a full time gig. Be sure to get the support of the ones closest to you, this could be your partner, parents, or best friends. Either way, having them be your cheerleader will be incredibly valuable. This type of support is really important when it comes to hunkering down when there’s lots of work on your plate. Some nights I have to sit and do work while the husband cleans up from dinner and bathes the kids. This is our reality and we support each other.
Prioritize and Stick To It
This is definitely something that I am working one. I fall prey to the shiny object syndrome. I get working on a task and next thing I know I have fallen down the social media rabbit hole or have gotten lost in endless SEO blog posts. While I start off with good intentions, I inevitably fall back to my old ways of doing small random task that at times don’t help with my larger goals. My husband picked up a white board for me to hang in the office so I’ll be using that to write and check off weekly or month tasks. I also use Momentum to list out my prioritizes for the day, oh and ogle over the gorgeous photos!
How do I define important task you may ask, here are some questions or points I consider.
- Does a task need to be done to meet a specific deadline?
- Does the task directly impact revenue?
- Is it work that impacts another persons ability to do something? (for example, do you need to provide guidance to a graphic designer so they can start designing your ebook cover?)
Batch Scheduling
This concept basically involves grouping together similar tasks so that by batching them together you can work more “in the zone”. I love this approach when it comes to writing. I definitely have days where I just want to write, write, write and having an on-going list of topics allows be to pump out a few first drafts of different blog posts. This approach also works well for bookkeeping. I save up all my accounting type work and do everything one day a month, boom done and done!
Down Time to Rejuvenate
We can’t pump out 100% effort, 100% of the time. Spending a bit of me-time lets you relax and regroup ready to take on the next task. I try and get out for at least one walk a day, the fresh air and hopefully sunshine are good for the soul. I’ll admit, most of the time I do think about work when walking, but being phone and computer free lets me sort through my thoughts, usually resulting in awesome new ideas!
What’s your favourite way to unwind? I’d love to know, so leave a comment below!
