When I talk about my “side hustle”, I am essentially referring to a dream I am pursuing on the evenings and weekends. Its that passion project that I am trying to get off the ground. Right now this is what my side hustle looks like: I work full time as an English Teacher to pay the bills and in my spare time I am building my online life coaching business.
Because I used to work 60-80 hrs a week as an OBGYN resident and am familiar with extreme exhaustion and burn out, it is very important to me to pursue this goal differently. I am not interested in sacrificing sleep or time with loved ones. I don’t believe in over scheduling myself or “powering through”.
I want to grow my life and my business with grace, ease and joy. So with that in mind, these are 5 of my best tips for taking the hustle out of side hustle.
#1 Set tangible goals and work backwards
The biggest turning point for me so far was when I actually crafted my business goal and built an actionable plan around it. In order to do this, I turned to Rachel Hollis’ new book Girl Stop Apologizing. It is pure gold. In the book, she walks through a step by step guide for goal setting and planning.
Using her process, I crafted my goal statement: “I have a 6 figure online life coaching business that allows me the flexibility to work remotely and travel the world”.
Then I worked backwards to reverse engineer the goal and break it down into three manageable guideposts:
#1 I get my first paying client
#2 I grow to 10 paying clients
#3 I scale to 40 paying clients, raise my prices and quit my teaching job.
This framework helped me to break down a big scary goal into bite sized chunks that actually seemed attainable. And guess what? I’ve already hit my first guidepost and am working my way towards number two. The process works.
#2 Manage your time like a pro
Part of starting a business and side hustling is about taking advantage of all your spare pockets of time. The best way I have found to manage my time efficiently is to get super clear on what I need to be doing. Otherwise, I waste hours trying to decide what to do, and never actually get anything done.
Every Sunday I hold a “jamming in my planner” session where I set out my strategy for what I want my week to look like. Much of the inspiration for this weekly practice came from Kate Northrups’ new book Do Less. One of her chapters in this book, is all about streamlining your to do list. Using the framework she lays out, I ask myself a series of questions to reflect on my body, mind, heart and the cosmos. This creates my vision for the week.
Then I set 3 priorities for the week: these are the 3 main things I want to focus for the next 7 days. To set my priorities, I ask myself the following questions: what three things could I accomplish this week to really move the needle forward in my business? What is absolutely essential to get done this week? Examples of these priorities could be: reach out to prospective clients, batch blog posts, create a lead magnet, learn new coaching technique, etc.
These priorities help to inform my daily tasks. Every night before I go to bed, I write down my top 3 tasks for the next day. These are the physical actions I must take that are in line with my priorities. I also include any coaching calls I have scheduled as daily tasks. This way I don’t feel overwhelmed with an unrealistic to-do list.
The key to being productive and feeling good about it, is making those hard decisions about what you should do and what you shouldn’t do on any given day. Being decisive and selective about your to-do list is where the magic happens.
#3 Keep your WHY front and center
Starting a business is tough work and you will quickly lose steam if you don’t have a clear purpose. You need to know WHY you are starting this business. Why you are chasing this dream? What is the life you are envisioning for yourself? How will you contribute to making the world a better place through your work? How will this light you up and make you feel alive?
Your WHY doesn’t have to be noble. You don’t have to want to end world hunger or cure a disease. You don’t have to publish your WHY on a billboard or on the home page of your blog or anything like that. The rationale for identifying your WHY is simply for your own motivation.
Get clear on your WHY and then be sure to remind yourself of this on a daily basis. Write your why down on a note card, type it up and keep it as a note in your phone, meditate on it for a moment everyday when you wake up. Find some way to create a daily practice for coming back to your purpose.
Some resources that helped me identify my WHY:
- Understanding Your Why with Katie O. Selvidge // Jenna Kutcher
- Start With Why // Simon Sinek
- What to Focus On When You Are Just Starting Out // Amy Porterfield (*hint download her freebie for an awesome worksheet to get even more clear on your why)
#4 Keep yourself inspired
Along with keeping your personal mission and vision in your mind, it is also important to get excited by other’s success stories.
I listen to entrepreneur podcasts regularly which give me my daily dose of education and inspiration. I love hearing about how people took a leap and pursued a dream on their heart. Where they started from, what motivated them and how they got to where they are today. It helps me to remember I am not crazy for doing this and I am not alone.
Some of these podcasts also give me super tactical advice and introduce me to authors, books and online courses that have helped me start my business.
I have a very hefty podcast rotation. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I hang out with Jenna Kutcher on her Goal Digger podcast. Tuesdays are reserved for Rachel Hollis’s Rise podcast. I spend my Thursday with Amy Porterfield learning about “Online Marketing Made Easy”. Whenever else I am commuting, walking, or cleaning I pop some Marie Forleo, Julie Solomon, or Lewis Howes into my earbuds and soak it all in.
Find whatever motivates and inspires you and consume that content on a regular basis.
#5 Take time off.
This is so crucial. When I first started off side hustling, I was working just as much as my 80 hr a week residency job. Then I realized how silly that was- because I had left that lifestyle for a reason. Taking breaks is a MUST for your well being and creativity. I promise you, your work will thrive when it comes from a place of being well rested and cared for- instead of strung out, exhausted and over caffeinated.
I take every Saturday entirely off. I don’t even think about opening up my laptop (except maybe for Netflixing). I take this time to go hiking or exploring my island home, grab dinner with friends, video chat with family, sit outside, read books for fun, etc. Taking a full day off is my sacred practice and my work is better because of it.
Schedule out at least one day off every week. Whether you break that up into two half days on the weekends, two weekday evenings fully off- whatever that looks like for you. Set aside this break time in your calendar and stick to it.
Remember you are a human BEING not a human DOING.
Hopefully these 5 tips were helpful for any of you looking to pursue a dream outside of your 9-5. What types of projects or side hustles are you working on? I’d love to hear all about your work!
Love this!! I think super helpful in terms of focusing your life in general! I’ll definitely be checking out some of those resources you shared!
Excellent read, Chelsea! Pursuing one’s dreams is often scary. Sometimes they change as well. Great comment about BEING! I am just getting into parts of my email. More to go!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading. And yess can’t imagine many things scarier than really just going all in on your dreams!