How to Balance Life and Work While Starting Your First Side Hustle

Guest post by Lucy Reed

How to Balance Life and Work While Starting Your First Side Hustle
Starting a side hustle is an increasingly common way for people to build greater financial security. However, finding time to manage a job, a side hustle, and your personal life can be a bit challenging. So consider these simple suggestions from Whitneycann to help you create the perfect work and life balance. 

Make Time for Rest and Relaxation
Self-care is the only way to avoid burnout when you're working a full-time job and taking on a side hustle simultaneously. Start by creating a definitive work schedule, allowing you to disconnect from work so you can give your brain a rest. What you do for self-care is a personal choice. However, some helpful suggestions anyone can try include meditation, going for a walk, taking a nap, reading a book, going shopping, or simply taking a long, hot bath. If you feel burnout coming on, try going on a short trip to recharge.

Another way to give you more time to relax is to avoid problems and small nuisances before they even happen. Try taking some time now and again to check expert tips and product reviews before bringing new products into the home; that way, in addition to not wasting money, you’ll save time, as well.

Reduce Your Workload by Delegating
Finding time for your personal life can mean relinquishing some control. You can get the same amount of work done with fewer demands on yourself simply by delegating tasks that others can handle. For example, if your side hustle involves building your own business, your workload will only grow from the start. As the demands increase, consider hiring a consultant or freelancer to take care of tasks such as building and maintaining your company website, writing content to boost your online presence, and handling all your IT work. When tasks start to compound, consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you manage all aspects of your life.

Start a Business
Another way to help achieve balance is by protecting yourself through the formation of a limited liability company. In addition to certain legal protections, this comes with some tax benefits, as well. You can set up your LLC yourself, or better yet, use a formation service that’s already well-acquainted with the specific regulations for setting up an LLC in Kentucky or whatever state you're located in.

Keep Everything Organized in a Home Office
Research shows that working in an organized, decluttered space helps your brain focus, making you more productive. When you know where everything is, you can access it quickly, avoiding delays and distractions created by clutter. Anyone working on a side hustle knows that staying organized can be challenging, especially if you attempt to keep up with tangible documents, inventory, and customer questions. 

The simplest way to keep track of things is to digitize everything. Saving your files as PDFs makes them look more professional; however, if you need to change formats later, there are tools to help. For instance, you can utilize a PDF to Word converter for free, make any necessary changes, then save it again as a PDF when you’re finished. 

Prioritize Time With Friends and Family
Maintaining connections with friends and family is an important part of mental health. When you're working excessively, it can feel impossible to manage time with the people you care about the most. Rather than relying on your memory and anticipated free time to schedule quality time, create a family night or a night each week with your friends. It can be a simple dinner or going out. It gives you a chance to take a break from the grind while also allowing you to nurture your relationships.

Communication Your Boundaries
Are you a person that struggles to say no? If so, creating a work/life balance can be even more difficult for you. Part of finding time for yourself and your family means saying no to requests for your time. This can mean setting boundaries with everyone in your life but especially with people at work. 

The key to creating work/life balance is to find time for yourself within your busy work schedule. Should your side hustle turn into something more, you'll need to reevaluate your schedule. Finding the perfect balance is a personal choice that requires understanding your own limits.

Whitneycann offers a variety of services related to content marketing. Questions? Please email [email protected].

Image via Pexels


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