Last week we chatted about building confidence in starting a side hustle. This week I wanted to dive into my side hustle time management tips and tricks to help you really prioritize and focus on the daily and weekly tasks it takes to be consistent with side hustle building.
When someone tells me they don’t have time. I actually want to scream BULLSHIT in their face.
We all have time. We all have the same amount of time in a day. We are all completely in control of how we structure our days. So you actually can’t say you don’t have time. You can only say: “I’m sorry that’s not a priority for me right now.”
Ok so if that nagging voice in the back of your head has been asking you for a while to start that side hustle that you’ve been dreaming up for a while now. Here is how you can structure your morning, noon, night and bathroom breaks. Cause that’s the time we have as side hustlers.
Here is a view into where I get tasks done. This is going to be different for everyone but it’ll get you thinking on when you can have side hustle “office hours”.
5:00 – 7:00 am (2 Hours)
12:00 – 1:00 pm (1 Hour)
5:00 – 8:00 pm (3 Hours)
I technically have 6 hours a day, 30 hours a week (M – F) that I can dedicate to side hustles and other activities. You’ll need to know what are your chunks of “free” time so take a moment and write them out.
I mentioned bathroom breaks as a chunk of my time. But all jokes aside, my co-workers will see me in the office, I’ll get up from my desk (or walk away from it if it’s set to standing) and I’ll have my face glued to my phone as I walk to the bathroom. Chances are if I’m replying to comments on Instagram or a DM I’m on the can (full disclosure). You make the most of your free time right?!
via GIPHY
So there are 2 parts of time management. There is doing the tasks that will complete an objective you’ve already started and then there is balancing dreaming up and starting new projects. I’ll cover a little bit about how I do both.
The Brain Dump
On Sunday nights I write down all the things I have going on in my brain from errands I need to run to weekly side hustles tasks (write Monday blog, write Weds blog, upload podcast to Libsyn, schedule social media posts, etc).
From there I open my Danielle Laporte Weekly Planner (sold out for the year), grab a piece of blank paper and start planning out my long-term goals to short-term goals to monthly, weekly & daily tasks.
When starting a side hustle the brain dump is going to be really long and that’s ok. You have to write down absolutely everything you know you need to do to get started. Here’s an example of what I would write if I was starting to launch a podcast.
Podcast Brain Dump Example
- Record First Interview
- Create Cover Art
- Get Libsyn Account
- Buy Recording Software
- Research Recording Software
- Research Microphones
- Buy Microphone (Ps. I use Apple Headphones because the quality is amazing and I just got started with them an never upgrade)
- Buy Intro/Outro Music
- Record Intro
- Record Outro
- Record Sponsorship Clip
- Create Promo Template In Canva
- Watch Free Podcast Course
- Hire Podcast Editor on UpWork
Long-Term Goals
Once you have a brain dump of all the things you need to do to start your side hustle you first have to plan out the timing of your long-term goals for the year. The only reason why I bring this up is a side hustle hasn’t taken a priority for a while now because you haven’t made it a priority amongst your other life priorities so you need to map out where you will make it happen.
Simply write down all the major goals or life events that you have going on during the year. I’ll use my next 6 months for example and where I would map out starting a brand new podcast amidst the rest of 2018.
- Wedding – August 2018
- Honeymoon – August / September 2018
- dōTERRA Convention – September 2018
- Trail Half Marathon – October 2018
- Christmas Holidays – December 2018
Knowing this I would take June & July to do all the tasks and get ready for a November 2018 Launch.
Short-Term Goals or Monthly Tasks
So once you have everything mapped out I like to break up the tasks into monthly tasks around your other short-term goals.
So I start with the monthly layout found in the planner:
I write down all the set in stone appointments and events in every single month from now until the end of the year.
Then on the scrap piece of paper, I take the brain dump and prioritize them. Depending on your organization style you can write down the month name beside each task or let’s say a 1 beside the first three things that need to get done. Here’s how I would group my tasks over the next few months (skipping August & September). Please note this is super simplified and doesn’t actually contain all the steps to launch a podcast but would give you a fairly good idea if that’s your side hustle you want to launch.
June
- Watch Free Podcast Course
- Research Microphones
- Buy Microphone (Ps. I use Apple Headphones because the quality is amazing and I just got started with them an never upgrade)
- Research Recording Software
- Buy Recording Software
- Record First Interview
July
- Buy Intro/Outro Music
- Record Intro
- Record Outro
- Record Sponsorship Clip
October
- Create Cover Art
- Get Libsyn Account
- Create Promo Template In Canva
- Hire Podcast Editor on UpWork
November
- Publish First 2 Episodes on Libsyn
- Submit Podcast to Apple Podcasts for Approval
- Promote Launch!
Pre-Planning The Week – Weekly & Daily Tasks
So on Sunday night, I open my planner for the week. I write in all my workout’s for the week and any appointments I have (on the left hand side of the weekly planner pages – see example below) that are day & time based as those are non-negotiables for me. Then I write in things like coffee dates, dinner dates or date night with my fiancé. Then I write out 3 things I want to get done for the week (near the top of the left page). From there I write out 3 things a day. I personally only allow myself a to do list of 3 side hustle tasks a day.
Since I have 3 times block of time to get things done. I give myself 3 tasks a day so I can easily spread them out before work, at lunch or after work. If I get all three done in the morning that leaves my lunch hour for other things like wedding planning, going for a walk or texting a friend. Then I’ve got full gammit of the evening and can binge watch Riverdale on Netflix 🙂
So let me break down the rest of June and how I would get all the above brain dump tasks completed with the next 3 weeks.
w/o June 11 (Monday, Weds & Fri morning I’m in the gym from 5:30 – 6:30am so I only have 30 mins of free time in the morning. )
Mon – Watch 30 mins of Free Podcast Course
Tues – Watch 1 hour of Free Podcast Course
Weds – Research & Buy Microphones (Order on Amazon)
Thurs – Research Software
Weekend – Finish What’s Left of Free Podcast Course
w/o June 18
Tues – Reach out to 5 Podcast Guests (Email or Instagram DM)
Thurs – Reach out to 5 Podcast Guests
w/o June 25
Tuesday Lunch Hour – Schedule 1st Interview
I hope that gives you a really good idea of reverse engineering the large objective down to monthly & weekly & daily tasks in your free chunks of time.
Other Side Hustle Time Management Tips
Ok so on the road to getting organized here are 2 other things that should help!
Daily Focus
Some people do really well with focused days so you aren’t switching between actions. Here’s an example of how you can schedule focused tasks each day of the week. Then you choose when you get that done and in which chunk of time you have.
Monday – Podcast Guest Outreach (Emails)
Tuesday – Podcast Uploading (Working in Libsyn)
Wednesday – Podcast Promotion Creation (Working in Canva)
Thursday – Scheduling Podcast Promotion Images (Working in Hootsuite)
Friday – Record New Podcast Episode (Content Creation Mode)
Healthy Habits
Unfortunately, if you’re not taking care of yourself, going after your goals and dreams are doable but it will be a hard slog. My overachievers and type A hard workers I need you to not gloss over this paragraph. If you don’t have an amazing health care / self-care routine I urge you to tackle this first before even thinking about scheduling your side hustle tasks into your week. Why? Because burn out, fatigue and stress are all too real disease feeders and your side hustle should never cause dis-ease in your body.
So please have a movement or fitness routine well mapped out and feeling good and consistent. Have your meals and snacks planned out for the week. Your water intake needs to be on point and THEN and ONLY THEN tackle the side hustle!
Want more guidance? Get my Goal Digger Workbook for in-depth modules on planning out your entire year and getting your side hustles and goals completed with ease and less stress. Actually, enjoy making a to-do list again!
See you next week when I tackle the subject of getting the drive to launch a side hustle.