The Art of Finding Time for Side Hustles

The world being pandemic stricken has had one positive outcome out of all the doom, people began to introspect upon their times and how they spent it. As modes of operation turned remote, the commute time was reduced or, simply vanished, and people found themselves with more of what could be potentially a productive time.

Little sparks flew in all these boggling minds about new explorations or just something which was always at the hind nook of the brain of something they always wanted to. A little voice and a little time give rise to a side hustle, and if it’s carried out with a bit of passion it could turn into a profitable business.

Even if the side hustle doesn’t give you scrumptious returns, an extra penny never hurts.

But starting a side gig is easier said than done. Outside of setting up the mindset to work on a certain gig, one also has to consider the startup expenses, whether or not one would be able to manage considerable time for the startup, and also if one has the energy to manifest on something new and demanding.

 According to statistics 

• 93% of working Americans have some sort of a side hustle,
• 37% started a side business to pursue a passion,
• 41 % started a side gig to spend more time on things that bring them solace.

 While it is an intriguing thing to go forward with a side gig, the biggest hurdles to starting and maintaining one are 

• Being able to make time for it (accounts for about 30%)
• Finding and working on the right idea (accounts for 28%)
• Not knowing the initial approach (about 14%)

But now that you start with one, how are you possibly going to juggle multiple responsibilities such as your full-time work, your family, and your kids, and then again find time for your side gig?

Well, as all things that seem impossible are kind of possible, the possibility of it coming into one’s consideration is the biggest proof of it being done.

Now the question arises how? As to that, we, here on the site, would help you with ways you can implement to wring out a little time from the same old 24 hours you think you make use of it to the fullest.

Wake up early

No doubt this tops the list. Waking up early in addition to several health benefits could also be beneficial to you in finding a little time to accommodate work you otherwise don’t find the time for.

Start with pushing back the waking time by small little chunks of 10 -20 minutes to finally pushing it by an hour 

• Set up a recurrent alarm: the lazy guy’s way of setting up a recurrent alarm and putting it in a place unapproachable from your bed could do wonders in compelling you to wake up even when you’re not feeling damned driven in those woeful morning hours.
• Have an early dinner the previous night: try having dinner a couple of hours before your bedtime the last night. What that does is stretches up the time you are without food, so if nothing motivates you an empty stomach looking to break the fast surely would
• Have arrangements ready for an alluring breakfast: the previous step brings us to this step which is having laid the arrangements for a good breakfast or a starting drink the night before would be the reason one looks forward to waking.
• Wake up and get going: as soon as you wake up don’t stretch in bed, get up, tie the shoelace and feel the wind outside, do a little warm-up, a jog maybe to wake your senses up
• Keeping the habit going: okay enough of trying to tie a carrot to move a donkey, now be a man and keep up the work even on weekends and on days you just don’t feel like making it a solid part of your routine.

Implementing time management techniques

• Pomodoro technique: The Pomodoro® Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It is a structured method made up of processes, tools, principles, and values to learn how to deal with time and turn it from a vicious predator to an ally to boost productivity. It is based on a series of principles built on self-observation and awareness. it is centered around the idea that work should be broken down into regular intervals separated by short breaks. One works for a given set of time as for say the standard that is 25 minutes and then takes a break for 5 mins and continues the cycle.
• Keeping a spreadsheet accounting for the hours in a day: in this technique, one has an account of all the hours and minutes in a day. By doing so you could easily find out what eats up the exact hours in a day, how much of it is productive and how much of it is just lost as a buffer. And there’s a cent percent chance there’s always a couple of hours that just went away doing nothing, once you identify that you know the drill. One could easily find plenty of such excel  templates to maintain online  
•  Start to schedule up the night before: starting to schedule up and making a to-do list the day prior frees you up a lot of headspaces and makes room to know the priorities for the day. Blocking off time in your day also creates consistency and eliminates distractions leaving you with more time to work on your side hustle
• Align your calendar with weekly goals: schedule up all the work that you have and wish to accommodate in the following week. That lets you keep a track of all that is to be done,  lets you measure your progress for the week, and holds you accountable if you miss a day’s work so that you compensate for it by the week
• Stop multitasking: whether it’s watching television or reviewing the files of the “other work” just don’t do any of those while you’re working on your side hustle, treat it like it’s the most important thing that’s to be done at that moment in time. Putting your mind on different things simultaneously distracts you with irrelevant information causing you to get puzzled and have less clarity of mind. Eventually, the work takes up much more time for completion  in comparison to things done with undivided attention

Get past distraction

Staying at a high percentage of efficiency in the era of digital distractions can be quite a daunting task.

So how do you stretch your attention span and start producing high efficiency in whatever you do, enhancing the quality of your work?

1. One could use tech to kill tech-related distractions. Be digitally stranded for the time you’re putting into your side hustle.

2. Go old school for hind research, use ink and paper to jot down ideas, and try using apps that block notifications from the apps that you don’t wanna look at when you’re engaged.

3. Keep away the scrolling and swiping tendency away from your reach for the time being.

4. You could also try and train your mind to see the break time as a rewarding time where you could freely be just distracted.

To conclude, it’s all in willpower. If you want it, you’re gonna make time for it.

Just a little effort and a couple of extra hours each week could make a big difference in what you are and what you would be.

And, who knows if this side gig of yours makes way to a happy corporate escape and lets you be your boss for the rest of it?

As I’ve always known and followed, the first step to accomplishing something is to want it.

Wanting is the key.

Go forward and implement these and let us know in the comment section what you find the most helpful also don’t forget to add things you think that we might have missed.