Are you struggling to make time for your side hustle? If so, you’re not alone. For most entrepreneurs, one of the biggest initial difficulties is finding time to work on their businesses while working other jobs.
Chances are, you started your side hustle for an important reason. Maybe you’re hoping to create greater financial freedom for yourself, or maybe your goal is to create a business you love so you can quit your full-time job.
Whatever your goals are for your side hustle, if you want to make them a reality, you need to allocate sufficient time to work on your business.
Fortunately, in this post, we’ll be covering 7 of the best ways to make time for your side hustle.
Let’s dive in!
1. Cut Out Distractions
So, you set aside time on your calendar to work on your side hustle. You sit down at your desk, flip open your laptop, and then… BUZZ! Did someone just like your photo on Instagram?
Distractions like these are the enemy of productivity.
Innocently checking your notifications can quickly turn into a social media rabbit hole that steals hours of your time.
When you’re building a business, uninterrupted creativity is one of the most essential tools for your success.
And your ability to be creative is severely diminished when your attention is being pulled in multiple directions.
Television, social media, text messages, phone notifications, and people talking can eat up huge chunks of time, even if you tell yourself you’re “working.”
If you allow these distractions to infiltrate the time you’ve set aside to focus on your side hustle, you may as well not make time for your side hustle at all.
With that in mind, do your best to find a distraction-free space.
If you live with family or roommates, let them know when you’ll be working on your side hustle and ask them not to interrupt you.
Also, put your devices on “Do Not Disturb” mode.
In fact, if you can, leave your phone in a different room or turn it off completely. This will prevent distracting notifications from pulling you off course.
By eliminating distractions, you’ll be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time, allowing you to make quicker progress toward your goals.
2. Systematize And Delegate
You’re only one person, so there’s a limit to the amount of time you can spend on your side hustle every week.
But what if you had someone to help you with some of the time-consuming tasks you do every week?
The sooner you can figure out how to delegate, the more time you’ll have to devote to the high-value work that drives your side hustle forward.
I realize that outsourcing might seem daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before.
But you can make the process less intimidating by systematizing your business as early on as possible.
If you want to do more with your side hustle, develop exact, repeatable processes for everything you do in your business. Then, when you’re ready, train someone else to do them.
Even before you’re ready to delegate, systematizing your business will help you work more efficiently.
Think about the tasks you do in your business every week.
For example, do you write weekly blog posts?
Package and ship orders?
Send proposals to prospective clients?
After you’ve identified your repeatable tasks, create a template or outline that details every step of each process.
These systems will make your life easier because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you do them.
Also, you’ll have a precise set of instructions to pass onto someone else, so you can begin offloading time-consuming tasks for which you no longer wish to carry the burden.
3. Wake Up Early
No matter what anybody else tells you, as a side hustler, the early morning hours are your best friends.
Often, if you only make time to work on your side hustle in the evenings, you’re missing out on your most productive hours.
After a long day working at a nine-to-five job, it can be difficult to muster the motivation and brainpower to work on your business.
After all, you likely have other responsibilities that need to be taken care of in the evenings, like cooking dinner for your family, cleaning up around the house, and winding down before bed.
Waking up earlier will allow you to work for yourself before you go to work for someone else.
You’ll have tackled the work that’s most important to you, so it won’t be hanging over your head for the rest of the day.
Also, if you wake up before the other people in your household, you’ll have a few distraction-free hours so you can focus even better.
While waking up early might be a sacrifice, it’s one that can make a world of difference in your side business.
That said, getting enough sleep is important, so you’ll need to start going to bed earlier if you’re used to staying up late.
By waking up early to work on your side-hustle, you’ll build a level of discipline that is essential for long-term success.
Want to make more money with your side hustle? Check out some of these other helpful posts:
- 7 Best Ways To Monetize Your Skills And Hobbies
- 15 Ways To Make Money With A Laptop And Internet
- 15 Proven Ways To Get Freelance Clients
- How To Make Money On Fiverr [The Beginner’s Guide]
- How Much Does It Cost To Start (And Run) A Blog?
- 17 Proven Ways To Make Money As A Freelance Writer
- 11 Realistic Ways to Make $1,000 Per Month Online
4. Prioritize Your Highest Value Work
One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is to figure out the #1, highest value task you can do to move your business forward.
Then, make it a priority to do that one thing every single day.
For example, if you’re a blogger, your highest value task might be writing 500 words per day.
If you’re an artist, it might be painting for one hour each day.
Or, if you’re a life coach, creating programs or pitching clients might be your highest value task.
If you’re not sure which tasks create the most value in your business, take a look at your finances.
What types of work are actually bringing in the money?
Since the success of your business is measured by profitability, whatever work is most profitable is usually of the highest value.
After you’ve determined what your highest value work is, focus on accomplishing that task every day.
In fact, you should consider each day you complete that single task a success.
Focusing your highest value work will help you make the most out of the time you have to put into your side hustle.
Instead of expending all your energy on tasks that don’t make a difference on your bottom line, you’ll be doing work that actually moves the needle every day.
This will create positive momentum toward your business goals!
Oh, and as far as the other, secondary tasks, don’t even put them on your to-do list until your highest value work is done for the day.
5. Plan Your Day The Night Before
A great way to make time for your side hustle is to plan out how you’re going to spend your time each day the night before.
Just like when you lay your clothes out for work the night before, doing this will cut down on the decisions you have to make about your side hustle.
This, in turn, will help you use your time more efficiently and will eliminate obstacles to getting started.
If you don’t take the time to plan your day in advance, there’s no guarantee that you’ll make time for your side hustle.
On the other hand, when you block off time on your calendar to work on your side hustle, you’re much more likely to follow through.
Don’t just set aside time on your calendar – decide what needs to get done in that time.
And be specific with your plan.
If your plan is only to “work on your side hustle” for an hour, you could spend that hour in a variety of ways. This vague statement leaves too much room for you to do work without producing a tangible result that moves you toward your goals.
Instead, plan the result you’re going to accomplish in that hour. So, rather than writing “work on my side hustle” in your calendar, write something like, “write one blog post” or “send three email pitches.”
Can you see how these statements are much more specific?
By the end of the hour, you’ll know exactly whether or not you accomplished your goal. This will encourage you to stay focused on the task at hand and will produce real results in your business.
6. Schedule A Daily Appointment With Yourself
To make time for your side hustle, you have to start treating it like a real business.
This means honoring your time commitments, no matter what.
Scheduling time to work on your side hustle is essential – even if it’s early in the morning or late at night.
Nobody is going to build your business for you!
You have to put in the work.
Usually, the only person holding you accountable for working on your side hustle is you. You don’t have a boss who checks in to make sure you’re meeting deadlines. And the only person you’ll disappoint by not showing up is yourself.
This lack of accountability is the reason why so many side hustles never make it off the ground.
If you want your business to be successful, you need to treat your daily time commitments like you would treat a meeting with a client.
If you scheduled a meeting with a client, you wouldn’t blow her off and not show up. You would show up on time, fully prepared and ready to work.
Treat your side hustle with this same level of care.
Make your daily appointments with yourself non-negotiable, and start treating your own time like you would anyone else’s.
7. Join A Mastermind Group
To ensure you make time for your side hustle, find ways to create accountability for yourself.
One of the best ways to do this is to join a mastermind group.
A mastermind is a group is full of like-minded individuals who are all focused on reaching their business goals.
Since it can be difficult to build a business on your own, masterminds provide accountability, support, education, brainstorming, perspective, and more.
Ultimately, they help you realize you’re not alone in the obstacles you’re facing, and they provide helpful ideas for overcoming them.
Mastermind groups can help you stay more productive throughout the week.
You can create blocks of time to work on your side hustle alongside other members of the group.
Then, you can all check in with each other to make sure you’re following through on your commitments.
Most masterminds are led by an instructor or facilitator who opens up discussions and helps members reach success.
By joining a mastermind group, you can both give and receive advice about building a business, and you can learn from other people’s experiences.
You’ll likely find that having the support and encouragement of others is vital to the success of your side hustle.
Remember, even as a solopreneur, you don’t have to build your business in a vacuum.
Instead, connect with other people who are doing something similar.
This will help create excitement and momentum as you work toward accomplishing your goals.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to running a successful business, you don’t always need more time. Rather, you just need to become more efficient and make the most of the time you have.
And the more efficient you become, the easier it will be for you to make time for your side hustle.
Oh, and one final note: while finding time for your side hustle is important, be sure to make time for activities that aren’t related to work. After all, if you work so hard that you burn out, you’ll never really experience success.
Now get out there, try out these tips, and make some time for your side hustle!
Do you have any other time management tips for side hustlers? Be sure to leave them in the comments below.
