Side hustles are a great way to start simply and start now. You don’t have to give up your job. They’re often things that anyone can do even without special training. And you can do them in your spare time.
Wait, spare time? What’s that?
Right, so finding spare time is no easy task. In fact, it’s probably the thing that keeps a lot of you from doing the thing that you want to do, right?
My day looks a little like this:
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- Wake up at the last possible minute to still have enough time to shower (on a good day), get the kids out of bed, feed them, and get them to school
- Yell at them to “hurry up because we’re going to be late and omg I don’t know where your shoes, recorder, planner and school project are and tomorrow will be different because we’re getting up early and everyone’s going to be organized” as I’m getting dressed and trying to find my car keys… again
- Rush to school, curse the other people who are also late and holding up the line, finally get them out of the car and breathe a sigh of relief
- Go to Target… again… because I forgot the deodorant on my trip yesterday… and the day before… and the day before… and… things are about to get stinky
- Get home and work all day (while also grumbling about barking dogs, mowers, and spam calls that seem to always interrupt me)
- Rush to school to pick up the kids because I finally got in my groove only to realize school gets out in 5 minutes
- Pout over the lack of parking because all those other “selfish” parents taking up parking spots
- Get home and either work some more or help a kid with homework or take a short nap because omg this day was long
- Cook dinner
- Clean kitchen
- Do the bedtime routine… which never ends on time and always results in me swearing we’re all going to bed way earlier tomorrow and using my mom voice to let everyone know they better not dare even let out the tiniest whimper about being tired in the morning
- Work some more until bedtime… which may or may not consist mostly of browsing Pinterest… for research purposes, of course
- Lie in bed awake for the next 2 hours thinking about all the side hustle things I wanted to do but didn’t have time for… and also how tired I’m going to be tomorrow when I do this all again
Sound familiar? Your day might look a little different than mine. Maybe you go to an office away from home. Maybe you’re a stay-at-home mama to littles who never. give. you. a. break. (Been there, too.) But whatever fun your schedule holds, you probably don’t have much downtime for that side hustle you’ve been thinking about.
Well, it’s time to find some time. For YOU. And your side hustle. Because even if it doesn’t blow up into some six-figure business that allows you and your spouse to quit your jobs, you’re doing something for you. You’re taking a chance. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it won’t. Maybe you’ll make a few bucks. Maybe you’ll make thousands of dollars a month eventually. Either way, you’re putting yourself first, which is something most moms are really bad at doing. That’s right. I’m talking to you!
So how do you do it? Here’s what worked for me.
Check Your Schedule
I know it feels like you’re going non-stop from the second your eyelids open (or your kids scream you awake) to the time you hit your pillow (and either fall asleep immediately or lie awake for hours with a million tabs open in your brain). But most of us have little pockets of time when we can squeeze in a little side hustle work.
That’s the great thing about side hustles. You can do them a little bit at a time.
So what I want you to do is close your eyes (but don’t fall asleep) and go through your entire day. Visualize what you do all day long. And I want you to find at least 5 pockets of time when you can squeeze in a little side hustle work. I’m not saying you have to use all 5 (unless you want to). Right now, I just want you to prove to yourself that you already have some time.
Stuck? Here are some examples:
- Sitting at your child’s sports/dance/instrumental/debate/whatever else they do practice
- During your lunch break
- While your kids are doing homework but don’t actively need your help
- During your little one’s nap time
- While your kids are outside playing
- After the kids go to bed
- Any time you would reach for your phone to play games or visit social media sites
- Times when you would normally watch TV
You don’t want to give up all your free time. Some downtime is very much needed. But if you’re serious about starting a side hustle, you’re going to need to cut out some of your time wasters.
Cut Back on Your Commitments
I see you, mom who feels like you have to do it all. You homeschool your preschooler, serve on the PTO at your kids’ school, sign up for every bake sale for every activity your kids are involved in, volunteer as the homeroom parent, chaperone field trips, sign the kids up for all the activities, take them to fun events in your city, schedule BBQs with the neighbors, take on extra assignments at work. No wonder you don’t have any spare time.
It’s tough to say no, right? Well, it is for me, anyway. And I think a lot of people are like that. You want to make everyone happy. You want to help. But it’s okay to say no.
I was never that extreme, but I did volunteer to be homeroom parent (two years in a row and one of those years I was homeroom parent for both of my kids… nightmare!) because no one else volunteered. I felt guilty. Even though I didn’t really have the time in my schedule, I did it. And I planned the heck out of those school parties (with school-approved snacks only ordered from nutrition services, of course, and nothing that remotely hinted at the holiday that loosely inspired the celebration — let’s hear it for February’s Friendship Party, everybody!).
Now, I’m in a season where I’m scaling back. I still show up. I still help out when I can. If you have a teacher appreciation week wish list on Amazon that I can order from my couch at midnight because that’s when I remember it, even better. But I don’t feel like I have to say yes to everything. I’m still working on not feeling guilty about it.
So I want you to think about your commitments. Is there anything you can give up? Is there something that you really dread doing and only do it out of guilt? Maybe it’s time to give it up or at least take a break. Maybe cut back on the amount of time you spend doing it. That frees up time for your side hustle. (And keeps you from feeling like your losing yourself in the flood of “yeses” to every request.
Change Your Schedule
You knew this one was coming. It’s one that I just can’t do. The suggestion: wake up earlier. It’s an icky one if you’re a night owl like me (although these days I’m getting older so even staying up late isn’t an option).
It makes sense. You have uninterrupted time before the kids wake up. You’re up and ready to go. If you can do it, waking up an hour or two earlier is a great way to find time for your side hustle. Knocking out some serious work on your side hustle first thing in the morning makes you feel accomplished and ready to conquer the world.
Waking up early isn’t the only way to change your schedule. Here are some other possibilities:
- Scale back your hours at your regular job
- Stay up a little later as long as you still get enough sleep
- Work on your side hustle instead of watching TV
Enlist Help
Hey, you. The one who feels like you have to do it all. It’s okay to ask for help or accept help or demand help from your family. You don’t have to do it all!
When my son was born (my first baby), I had the “I have to do it all. He’s my son. I don’t need help. I have to do this” thing going on. I remember my mom being there helping after we brought him home from the hospital. She was going to leave. She asked me if I wanted to her to stay. I said no. Because he’s my baby, right?
As soon as she left, I crumbled. I was a whole mess of hormones and emotions and overwhelm. (That little baby just finished 6th grade, but I STILL remember distinctly how overwhelmed I was. If you’re at that point in your life, I feel for you. Just know you can and should reach out for help). Anyway, so my husband called my mom and told her she might want to come back. I think he was beyond scared and had no clue how to help. No way was he going to approach that situation without backup. She came back and I reluctantly accepted her help. Reluctantly only because I thought I was supposed to be able to do it on my own.
But you don’t have to take it all on. “It” doesn’t have to be a newborn baby when you’re all fresh with hormones. It can just be helping out around the house. Get your family in on it, whatever it may be that will free you up to do your side hustle. This side hustle could turn out to be an amazing blessing for the whole family. They can help out now while you get it off the ground (and even after you’re going full-steam).
Start with your partner if you have one. Maybe your partner takes the kids to the park for an hour each night so you can devote time to your side hustle. Maybe he or she helps out with the laundry or the dishes or the bathtime or the {fill-in-the-blank} to free up a little more of your time.
If your kids are old enough, get them on board with tasks around the house. They might seem like little things, but every task someone else does frees up a few minutes for you.
Most school-age kids (and even some younger kids) can handle lots of tasks including:
- Taking out the trash
- Taking out the recycling
- Setting the table
- Washing the dishes
- Helping with meal prep
- Taking care of pets
- Making their own cold lunches for school
- Packing their bags for school
- Doing their laundry (or at least folding and putting away their own laundry)
- Cleaning their rooms
- Picking up common spaces
If you feel like you’re always picking up or nagging your kids to pick up, try this trick. Every night after dinner (or at another convenient time), have a family clean-up. Turn on some fun music, and set a timer for a certain amount of time. Ten or 15 minutes works well because it’s not so long that it seems overwhelming yet it’s long enough to get something done. Everyone picks up until the timer goes off. When the timer rings, clean-up time is over.
Swap Services
Sometimes you still need a little more help than your family can provide. Get creative with the resources you have to make it work.
If your kids are young (or it’s summertime and your kids are home), one way to get some dedicated work time is to swap babysitting with someone else. Maybe it’s another parent who works from home or stays home with the kids. Even if they’re not working on a side hustle, they may go for the idea of having some time without the kids.
So here’s how it works. You watch that person’s kiddos for a set amount of time. Then they watch your kiddos for the same amount of time. Simple as that. If you have 5 kids and your swap partner only has 1, you may need to work on making it fair. But otherwise, just swap times with one another, and you both get a breather. You might swap every other day. Or maybe just once a week. It might be for a couple of hours. Or maybe it’s all day. Do what works for both of you.
The same idea works for services related to your side hustle. Say you want to start a blog, but you don’t know the first thing about designing one (or don’t have the time to dedicate to it). Hit up someone you know who’s just getting a design business off the ground or does it on the side. In exchange for a blog design, you might offer up a number of free blog posts for the designer’s blog.
Schedule Time for Your Side Hustle
Of all the suggestions, this is the one that made the biggest impact for me. I finally accepted that I just had to schedule time for my side hustle.
Here’s the thing. There’s ALWAYS going to be more you can do. I’m a freelance writer. I always have work available. So I feel like any “work” time I have should go to actual paying work. Because, bills, right?
And that’s why it took me so long to finally get this blog up and running. I kept putting it off. Because obviously, you should choose the thing that makes you the money now, right?
Except the end goal was always a more flexible way to earn money. With a greater earning potential. And the option to make money at least somewhat passively. I just wasn’t dedicating the time to get there. So I was stuck in the cycle of making just enough to get by but not having the time left to get my side hustle rolling.
So I finally decided I was done putting it off. I started blocking off 2 hours of my day strictly for blog work. Sure, my income took a little hit. But, really, I don’t think it hurt as much as I feared. I love writing for my own blog. Writing for other people? Eh. It’s okay. But finally starting my own blog gives me something fun to do. Something I truly enjoy. And that mental break makes it a little easier to do the stuff that pays well for right now. Which means I’m a little more productive when I have to do the freelance stuff.
That’s really just a long-winded way of saying you have to start scheduling time for your side hustle. And you have to stick to it. If you don’t, you’re going to keep pushing it off until tomorrow. And you’re going to be stuck in the same cycle of work you don’t really like with an income that doesn’t really support what you really want to do.
It’s All About Change
How many times have you seen motivational quotes along the lines of “nothing changes unless you make changes”? It’s true. If you’re not working on your side hustle now, you’re never going to work on it unless you make some changes. You don’t have to overhaul your entire life, but you do need to make some little changes to make time for your side hustle.
So how are you making time for your side hustle? What’s standing in the way of finding the time to hustle your way to more freedom?
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