This post lists 7 steps on how to schedule a side hustle or passion project to your busy life.
A side hustle or a passion project does not come with 9 AM-5 PM working hours. You are committed to your day job, or you are running a household. Your plate is full, but you want to make this side project work. But the “pockets” of time you have only adds up to 10-15 hours a week.
That’s not a lot of time.
The secret sauce to winning this side hustle game? Learn how to schedule your time wisely.
Here are the 7 Steps to Schedule a Side Hustle to your Busy Life
1. Finding Your Most Productive Time (and least)
What does being productive mean?
Using the allotted time to produce high-quality and impactful work.
Think about the time when you are the most focused and creative. This is the best timing to work on what makes the sales for your business. Or has the biggest impact on your project
So if you craft as a side hustle and the afternoons are when your creativity kicks in, then consider crafting on Saturdays or Sundays. Because during the week you have your day job or with the kids.
Or if you create digital courses online and you are the most alert in the morning, then film before work begins.
Knowing when you aren't not at your best....
You will not find me working on this blog past 8 PM, it's a waste of time and the quality of it stinks! There have been mornings when I re-read what I wrote the night before and I ended up hitting the delete button.
Instead, I repurpose those evening hours to answer emails or to look up some online research. Tasks that still need to get done, but do not require much thought or creativity.
Listen to your mind and body and take note of when these peaks and valleys of energy occur.
Choosing the right activity in the right state of mind will help you level up your productivity score.
2. List the Essential Tasks
Every business has specific tasks that need to get done weekly to stay in business.
For example, if your side hustle is creating graphic t-shirts that are sold on Instagram, then your list could look like:
- Create new designs
- Process orders
- Solve production issues
- Ship out orders
- Promote on social media
Listing out the essentials will allow you to see how many tasks are needed to get completed throughout the week.
Now take a step back and review this list.
Do you have enough opportunities of time to get these essential tasks done every week?
You may find that you do not have enough pockets of time to get all of the tasks done. Consider asking friends or family for help or hiring someone to complete some of the tasks.
If you don't have the finances to hire someone or a support system to lean on. It's OK to scale back on the orders or workload.
It may take longer to hit your goal, but slow and steady also wins the race.
3. Being Realistic with Your Time and Expectations
My first attempt to schedule my side hustle bombed!
I failed to hit any of the times on the schedule because I created a “fantasy” schedule, not a realistic one.
I totally underestimated how long each task would take. I felt bad whenever a calendar notification would pop up. It was just a reminder that I failed to meet this made-up schedule.
Try and try again, but this time I was honest about the timing each task would take to complete and how many tasks I could realistically complete every week.
Here are some helpful considerations when figuring out how much time to assign for each essential task:
- Slightly overestimate how long each task will take- if you finish it earlier than scheduled you win a prize- time back!
- Break up large tasks into smaller tasks- you will get more accomplished and feel good when each task is complete.
- You can only do what you can do. Avoid burn out, or risk shutting down your side hustle or giving up on your passion project.
4. Set Up Time Boundaries and Create a Support System
You want to make this side hustle happen- you need to make it happen. So, it's time for you to treat this side project with the same respect and ownership as to how you would with your anchor job or career.
Once your mindset shifts towards making this a priority. The people around you will start to take it seriously too and will want to support you in making this a success.
When I needed to spend more time launching this blog, I sat my husband and daughter down and asked for support by taking care of their meals and trying not to disturb me during my “working hours”. They were very supportive and they did not starve. Together we created time boundaries around my side project.
I get it, not everyone has the same built-in support system or kids that are old enough to cook for themselves.
But if you want to make a side hustle successful, you will need to share and ask other people for help.
You might need to ask someone to help watch the kids or ask your partner to pick up some extra chores around the house. Just keep in mind, this is not a permanent situation. By creating time boundaries and a support system now, it could help move your business one step closer to automating a process or hiring help to support the growth.
5. Schedule Theme Days and Batching Your Work
Do you know the feeling when you are in the zone or a good workflow? Your state of mind, focus, and attention could continue in the same mode for another hour, without missing a beat? This is the perfect opportunity to batch your work or create theme workdays.
What is theme work? Pairing similar tasks to be done one after the other, to maintain a consistent workflow, avoiding a lapse of focus or completely switching gears.
For example: You like to check the stats of your website traffic on Mondays. Add checking the financials for the business at the same time. Your mind is already “warmed-up” in an analytical mode. Keep up the workflow by continuing a similar task. Create a theme name for those times, like "Analytical Mondays" to help you get into the right state of mind and expectations of what to do that day.
What is batching work? Similar to theme work, pairing similar tasks to be done all at once and producing enough to be portioned out until the next time you have to do the task again.
For example: I schedule a “Pins & Posts” Wednesdays (like my theme work name?) to design Pinterest pins and social media posts on the same day. Both require creating designs and coming up with catchy taglines. I create enough content to post each day until the following week.
6. How to Time Block Your Side Hustle
You figured out all the essential weekly tasks and how long each task will take. Now it’s time to block out those times on a calendar by making appointments per essential task.
The key points to blocking out time on a calendar:
- Create a calendar for your side project separate from your personal calendar, but preferably on the same platform
- Color code each task
- The subject line for each time slot should be related to the task
- Be mindful of the realistic time frame you assign to each task
- Optional: share with people in your home or on your team, so everyone is on the page/timing
With Google and outlook calendars, you can make multiple calendars. And with a click of your mouse, you can see your side hustle calendar combined with your personal.
Here is a helpful guide about maximizing Google calendar and Microsoft Outlook calendar.
7. Assess and Revise Your Side Hustle Schedule
Did I mention that my first attempt at creating a schedule and time blocking on a calendar was a complete disaster? Oh, yes- I did.
Well, I am not embarrassed to share my business failures. But I don't call them failures, but tests. Because when you are new to running a business, you never know what the outcome will be, that's called testing it out.
So, test a schedule and find a workflow that works for you. Stay realistic and honest with yourself. And revise and update until you get to the point of good quality without getting burnt out.
Oh, and don't forget to make time to celebrate the fruits of your labor!
I hope these 7 steps of how to schedule your side hustle will help you get the best results for your business.
Drop a note below if you time block your side hustle or passion project or have a calendar trick to share.
