Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. This
Speaker 1: week we've been talking about lots of money related topics.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to make time for a
Speaker 1: side hustle. A side hustle is something you do to
Speaker 1: make money on the side, meaning in addition to your
Speaker 1: day job. People do this for lots of reasons. Plenty
Speaker 1: of people could use more cash, but a side hustle
Speaker 1: can also be a way to pursue a passion or
Speaker 1: use skills that don't fit so neatly into a salaried
Speaker 1: benefit providing box. If you're interested in the wide variety
Speaker 1: of side hustles out there, be sure to check out
Speaker 1: the podcast Side Hustlers with my friend Carla Marie or
Speaker 1: Side Hustle School, hosted by my friend Chris Gulopo. Chris
Speaker 1: also has a new book out called one hundred Side Hustles,
Speaker 1: which is filled with inspirational ideas. People lead scooter tours
Speaker 1: or urban hikes. They create morning routine journals, or even
Speaker 1: saddles for pet chickens. Seriously, if you put your mind
Speaker 1: to it, I'm sure you can come up with something
Speaker 1: you are interested in that somebody is willing to pay for.
Speaker 1: But then, once you've got the idea, this leads to
Speaker 1: a question that's relevant for this podcast. When are you
Speaker 1: going to find the time? The honest truth is that
Speaker 1: you're never going to find the time. You have to
Speaker 1: make the time. But in one hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 1: hours a week, there is definitely time to build a
Speaker 1: side hustle in addition to your nine to five. This
Speaker 1: is true even if you have a family or other responsibilities.
Speaker 1: The first step, and this is always the first step,
Speaker 1: is to track your time. You want to get a
Speaker 1: really good sense of the rhythms of your life. When
Speaker 1: do you usually wake up, when do you leave for work,
Speaker 1: when do you get home? What do you do then?
Speaker 1: What do you do after your kids go to bed?
Speaker 1: What do you do on weekends? What time do you
Speaker 1: wake up? And what has to happen and what doesn't.
Speaker 1: Then you need to figure out how much time would
Speaker 1: be reasonable to devote to your side hustle. The good
Speaker 1: news here is that you don't need to find forty
Speaker 1: hours a week that it would basically be your main job.
Speaker 1: Chris tells me that the amount of time people spend
Speaker 1: on their side hustle varies widely by the project and
Speaker 1: the person, but generally, he says, consistent effort on the
Speaker 1: right things, even in small chunks, can go a long
Speaker 1: way toward boosting those odds of success. Even twenty minutes
Speaker 1: a day with a plan in mind in advance, combined
Speaker 1: with half a weekend day, can be enough in the
Speaker 1: long run. As he's studied the schedules of people who've
Speaker 1: written into him, he's found that it's common for people
Speaker 1: who work full time to spend about an hour or
Speaker 1: so a day on their projects Monday to Thursday, and
Speaker 1: then maybe a little more time on the weekends. If
Speaker 1: you can consistently find seven hours a week, you'll be
Speaker 1: in good company. So look at your schedule considering the
Speaker 1: whole of your week, then think about your energy levels
Speaker 1: and logistics. For many people with jobs and families, early
Speaker 1: mornings are a good side hustle time. Turn off the
Speaker 1: TV a bit earlier at night, go to bed earlier,
Speaker 1: and wake up an hour earlier than you might four
Speaker 1: days a week. Use those four hours to move your
Speaker 1: project forward. Of course, if your kids wake up at
Speaker 1: the crack of done, or you're not a morning person,
Speaker 1: then early mornings might not work for you. One option
Speaker 1: is to choose one evening to go somewhere like a
Speaker 1: coffee shop or the library. You might be able to
Speaker 1: work from six to ten pm on your business. And yes,
Speaker 1: that's going to feel like a really long day on
Speaker 1: top of your regular job, and you might need extra
Speaker 1: kid coverage, but it's only one day a week. You
Speaker 1: can power through knowing you can then relax on your
Speaker 1: other evenings. Weekends are always an option, and if you're
Speaker 1: side hustling, working on weekends is somewhat inevitable, but you
Speaker 1: can do it with an eye toward preserving family or
Speaker 1: leisure time even as you're getting stuff done. A great
Speaker 1: option is to choose one weekend morning to get up early,
Speaker 1: basically as if it were a weekday. You could get
Speaker 1: a ton done between six and nine am. If you've
Speaker 1: got teenagers, this is basically time that doesn't even exist
Speaker 1: to them. You could still have time to relax or
Speaker 1: get a workout in before anyone starts stirring. With littler kids,
Speaker 1: you might opt to use mid afternoon nap time or
Speaker 1: quiet time for your side hustle, or if you're co
Speaker 1: parenting with someone you might reach an agreement on coverage.
Speaker 1: But in any case, if you worked four hours on
Speaker 1: Tuesday nights and three hours on Saturday mornings, you'd be
Speaker 1: devoting seven hours a week to your side hustle, even
Speaker 1: though you're only really stretching your schedule two days a week.
Speaker 1: Of course, with a limited timeframe like that, it's very
Speaker 1: important to be intentional with your side hustle hours. You
Speaker 1: need to focus on what best moves the business forward,
Speaker 1: rather than spending all seven hours answering emails. But there
Speaker 1: are one hundred and sixty eight hours in a week.
Speaker 1: If you work forty and sleep eight hours a night,
Speaker 1: so fifty six per week, that leaves seventy two hours
Speaker 1: for other things. Devoting seven to a side hustle still
Speaker 1: leave space for the rest of life. If it's important
Speaker 1: to you, it's definitely doable. If you've got a side hustle,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear when you make it happen. You
Speaker 1: can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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