How to stay organized and maximize your time when working your 9-5 job and running a creative side hustle

Are you struggling with burnout & overwhelm while trying to work your day job to pay the bills & keep your benefits, but also running a creative side hustle to fuel your creativity & dreams to be an entrepreneur?

 I hear you loud and clear friend.  I've previously been in that place for years and unfortunately waited until my body hit absolute rock bottom to make changes that would sustain me to be able to do both.  Now I know we all come from different backgrounds and have different situations and reasons why we do one or the other or both so I don't want to dismiss why you're doing what you need or choose to do.  But I am here to share what has worked for me to be able to do both without being on the verge of burnout.

It's possible to do both.

In many capacities and situations.  It doesn't have to be an all or nothing adventure.  I've worked a full time job, a casual job, ran a creative side hustle, and renovated a home all at once.  I've worked part-time, a casual job, and a side hustle.  I've worked part-time, been a part-time SAHM/WAHM and ran a side hustle.  My point is, no matter what season you're in, or your situation, you can have a creative side hustle and make it work for you.  It's not a one size fits all approach.  It may and most likely will look a little different for everyone.

Combined, yet separate to-do lists.

I know, I know you're thinking "Duh Michelle", but here me out.  If you're naturally a post-it note here, a notepad there, a phone note somewhere kind of person like me.  It's helpful to keep ALL of your thoughts, ideas, dreams, and to-do's in one place but categorized.

This has helped my brain stay on the correct category for what exactly it is I should be currently working on and what I have time for at that moment.  I have created and use a side-hustler's to do list that you can download for free here.  This template is beneficial in keeping your brain organized.  I fill this out each week.  I put my top 3 to-do's in each category that need to get done.  Then the rest of the tasks are bonus items if I get to work on them if I get time.  This way you're not putting too much on your plate and overwhelming yourself.  And if you get a free 15 minutes because you arrived early somewhere you can whip out your list and check something off instead of scrolling on your phone.  Which leads me to my next point....

Slow the scroll....

Be intentional with your screen time.  I'm about to get brutally honest with you.  If you REALLY want a successful creative side hustle take a good hard look at your screen time each day and week.  What growth could you experience in your side hustle if you took even a fraction of that screen time and put it to use in your small biz?  I'm betting life would look a little different for you.  I mention this from a place of love and understanding as a habitual social media user and scroller.  

I suggest setting a timer on all of your social media apps (I personally do 10-20 minutes/day).  It's just enough to check in, answer DM's and even post quickly.  My apps kick me out when the time is up and I move on with my day and to-do list.  When I honor my screen time limits I'll tell you first hand I'm ahh-mazed at how much more I can get done in a month without staying up late or feeling rushed and stressed out.

"Tick-tock, the mouse ran up the clock"

JK, can you tell I'm the mom of a toddler?  But for really, set out specific times of the day or week to check items off your to-do list.  I use this nifty little timer to stay on track.  First, I make sure that all of my daily or personal to-do's are done before I start working on anything side hustle.  This ensures that the dishes in the sink don't grow to stacks taller than your head, the laundry doesn't turn into piles of a wrinkled mess.  You know those mornings when you're rushing out the door for work & the pants that you want to wear are sitting in the dryer, or worse yet still in the wash?  Then you throw on the permanently creased pants anyways because there's nothing else suitable in your closet.  You jump into your car to see you're on E, and now your 5 minutes late turns into 15?  Yeah, me too!  That's why I want to help you stay organized and on top of all of your obligations instead of being in a state of feeling like you're constantly behind.  

So back to my point.  Get your daily life in order before you start hustlin' (there's a reason it's called a side hustle).  I usually set aside 1 hour each night with my timer to create/make product then call it a night and go to bed at a decent time.

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your work.

Are you sick of me yet?  Barney was onto something though...  Take a few minutes at the end of your making session to clean up your workspace and get it to a state that will be easy to jump back into and get creating.  Ask yourself, "will my future self thank me for this?".  If your answer is "yes", you know what to do.

Batchworking

Have your heard of the term?  It's efficiency gold!  Take a minute to write down and segment out every single task that you do to create a product.  Then work on each segment in a "batch" working on multiples in one sitting.  Do this instead of creating each product one by one from start to finish.  Your production time per item will go down which in turn will increase your profit margins (AKA money in your pocket).

Here are the categories I like to break down my batchworking sessions into:

1. sourcing/buying materials
2. material prep (washing, unpackaging, etc.)
3. creating (cutting, pinning, sewing, etc)
4. finishing (turning right side out, lint rolling, trimming, etc)
5. packaging (branding, price tags, hang tags, labeling, stickers, etc.)

Have a clear product line.  You can waste A LOT of time and energy trying to make anything and everything.  Focus on what works for you so that you can easily produce inventory.  Just because you can make something, doesn't mean you should be.

Now that you've read my top tips for staying organized with your side hustle and how to efficiently use your time.  I hope that you're feeling inspired to reduce the side hustle burnout cycle.  Over the next month start implementing the strategies you've learned in this blog to gain some freedom back and allow margin in your free time for fun things!  I'm all about the side hustle game, but more importantly about living life too!