How to Successfully Hustle Time for Your Side Hustle

The key to succeeding with side hustles is time management.

It’s no secret that balancing a side hustle while working a 9–5 is difficult.

While there are no hard and fast rules for how much time you should spend on your side hustle, anywhere between 15 to 20 hours a week would be ideal. Any less and it will be hard to get a lot done.

The time you spend on your side hustle directly impacts the speed with which your business grows. So, the lesser the time, the slower the pace… and the slower the growth, the higher the frustration.

Side hustles always sound like they’re going to be this cool entrepreneurial activity — that you can work and make money whenever you want and be flexible and free.

That’s not always the case.

Statistics show that one in five side hustles fails in the first year, and only about half make it to five years.

After all, it’s not called a side “hustle” for no reason. Fact is, you need to work hard to make it a success.

If everything you’ve read up to this point hasn’t deterred you, then read on. The intention of this article is to help give you a fighting chance to succeed.

HOW TO FIND MORE TIME FOR YOUR SIDE HUSTLE

ESTABLISH A ROUTINE AND SET GOALS

It’ll be easier to stay on track with a routine. You can set a time in the day to work on your side hustle, let’s say every evening after dinner. This is a way to train your brain to remember that after dinner, it’s time for work — not time to scroll to oblivion on your phone. When your side hustle is part of your routine, it will feel less like a drain on your energy.

In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, he talks about habit stacking. It’s the idea of using connectedness of behavior to your advantage. The formula is “After ____, I will ____.” So, “After dinner, I will create content to post the next day.” The dinner becomes the cue that triggers the next behavior, which is something to do with your side hustle.

The key here is to have a solid goal. Content creation could go on forever — what’s the goal? What exactly are you creating and what’s the purpose? You need to be specific and realistic about your goals because time is a limited resource. You’re now your own employer, so you have to hold yourself accountable.

STAY FOCUSED AND PRODUCTIVE

Create Boundaries
Your side hustle shouldn’t result in you working during all your free time. And if you’re not careful, it’s easy to fall into that trap.

So, it’s important to set boundaries to ensure that you don’t end up taking time from other priorities in your life, like family time and engaging in relationships that enrich you. Here are two effective ways to set boundaries for yourself:

Try time blocking for productive activity. Decide ahead of time how much time you’ll spend on an activity, and stop doing it when that time is up.

Use focus apps so you can stay totally focused while working on your side hustle. You’ll make better use of your time and be less likely to need to work outside of your planned hours. These focus apps can block distractions, which will allow you to use your motivation and energy for meaningful work.

USE TECHNOLOGY TO BE MORE EFFICIENT

Set Up Processes and Automate
We sometimes make the mistake of valuing money over time, so it can be tempting to do everything yourself. But just like money, time is also a limited commodity. Reality check: your focus should be on activities that fulfill you and, more importantly, generate revenue.

Go through all your processes and figure out what can be automated. If you’re not sure, ask yourself: What tasks do I perform the most frequently? Such tasks that have to be done often or on a schedule are perfect candidates for automation and the benefits are immediate. You’ll spend less time on repetitive work, which can quickly become taxing and annoying.

When your tedious tasks are automated, you’ll have a better idea of your actual capacity. That will allow you to set much clearer expectations for yourself and the progress and growth of your side hustle.

Consistency is key, so as Jerry Seinfeld said: Don’t break the chain!

Keeping that momentum is sometimes all the motivation we need. So, pick a goal, break it down into tiny tasks, pick the day and time you’re going to work on them, and mark them off in a visually satisfying way — like big red Xs on a calendar. Then keep going.

You can’t make more hours in the day — but you can use them better.

(Author: Bullet Kondo)