Juggling a Full-time Job and a Side Hustle
Introduction
Prices are high. Inflation is high. Interest rates are high. Getting by on the traditional 9-5 is not as simple as it should be. As such, increasingly workers are turning to a side hustle to make ends meet. For many, balancing a full-time job while pursuing a side hustle is not just a means of boosting income but also a way to fulfill entrepreneurial aspirations, hone new skills, and achieve personal growth. However, managing both can be a challenging endeavour, demanding careful planning, time management, and strategic decision-making.
By the numbers
In June of this year, more than half (54%) of Americans said they’d adopted a side hustle to supplement their primary source of income in the last 12 months [1]. In the UK, 43% of Brits have a side venture [2]. Gen Zers are most likely to have a side gig (71%), but millennials are close behind (68%). [3]
Do you need a side hustle?
The motivations for taking on a side hustle are diverse. Maybe it’s necessary to make rent, with the cost of living crisis making just getting by a difficulty for many; additional income can provide financial security, help pay off debts, or fund personal goals such as travel, education, or home ownership. Side hustles also offer opportunities to learn new skills or enhance existing ones, which can be beneficial for career advancement. Many people have hobbies or interests they wish to pursue professionally, passion projects which might not be feasible through their full-time job. Additionally, a side hustle can serve as a testing ground for business ideas, potentially leading to full-time entrepreneurship.
Before committing to the delicate balancing act of juggling two jobs, you need to assess your capacity to do so. Consider the intensity of your full-time job, your personal commitments, and your energy levels. You need to be realistic about the time and energy you can dedicate to a side hustle without compromising your well-being. If you’re already swamped at your full-time job then taking on an additional workload is a bad idea –– you’ll burn out quickly and end up more likely to lose your original job than to earn any additional income.
Equally important is choosing the right side hustle. It should align with your skills, interests, and available time. For those pursuing a passion project, this is of course already baked in, equally so for anyone looking to set up a personal business on the side. But for those less sure where to start, who are simply looking for a little bit of extra cash flow, consider whether you can leverage existing skills or explore new areas of interest. Evaluate the time commitment required and select a side hustle that fits your schedule. Most importantly, choose something you enjoy to maintain motivation and prevent burnout.
As Forbes Council Member John M. O’Connor writes of his own journey, “The times I tripled up [my workload] to “make more money” but did it just for the money, it created a universal imbalance and injured relationships and the effectiveness of my other work” [4]. Learn from his mistakes.
Managing your time
A lot of balancing a full-time job and a side hustle comes down to time management. Writing in Forbes, Caroline Ceniza-Levine, founder of the Dream Career Club and author of Jump Ship: 10 Steps To Starting A New Career, recommends setting up “a clear timeline for how long you plan to juggle the two and decide what success markers you want to see along the way to ensure you are on the right track.” [5]
Freelance writer and stand-up comedian Virginia Hogan implores workers pursuing a passion project to “[set] aside specific hours for it. Not a specific amount of time — specific hours. Block out on your calendar when you’re going to write that short story or build that desk. It might only be once a week, but make sure it’s planned.” [6]
Essentially, the important thing is to be organised. Do not allow your side hustle to linger over you as one further task to undertake, like changing the bedsheets or going to the gym. Because let’s face it, we all know how easy it is on a lazy day to put those activities off; all of a sudden the routine is on the backburner and difficult to re-ignite.
Just as it’s important to know yourself in order to get an idea of what kind of side hustle you should be engaged in –– where your skills lie, what skills you want to learn –– it’s also important to know yourself so as to better schedule your two income streams. “Pay attention to when you do your best work,” recommends Ceniza-Levine. “If you know that you are just too unfocused after a full day of work, then you have to get up early for your side business. Or you have to clear your weekends for it.” [7]
What is your worth?
Let’s say you’re just getting started on your side hustle journey, and that you’ve chosen a career path that allows you to dictate rates, as opposed to picking up a second salaried job. How do you know what to charge?
Bernadette Joy, a leadership coach specialising in financial freedom, having paid off $300,000 of debt in three years and invested enough to retire by 40, recommends matching your revenue goal to your housing (or any other specific financial target you want to reach). When she first started her side hustle, she wanted to earn enough to pay off her monthly mortgage. That was it. To do that, she needed to make $2000 a month (on top of her salary, which she would use for all other spending and saving).
She realised that, “To reach $2,000, I could choose from selling to (a) 100 customers at $20;
(b) 20 customers at $100; or (c) Two customers at $1,000.”
“I ultimately chose the middle option,” she says, “rationalising on average I needed one customer every weekday, and I could still take the weekends off. I earmarked every sale toward my mortgage and that made each sale feel more rewarding.” [8]
The advice is simple. Pick a financial goal. Work out how much you’ll have to charge and how many clients you’ll need to make that goal. Put all the money you earn towards that goal.
After that, your savings will take care of themselves.
Getting the balance right
Now, let’s say you’ve set up your side hustle –– you’ve set your goals and have set aside the appropriate amount of time each week or month to meet them. How do you ensure all this new work doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day job? First, you “need to decide your objectives for your current job,” according to Ceniza-Levine.
“Do you want to just get by, or are you going for a promotion? Is there restructuring or other changes afoot where you have to pay closer attention? The job/ side business juggle isn’t only for people who hate their job. Maybe you like your job enough but want an extra and/or different stream of income. If you like your job, you need to be clear about your goals there as well, not just for the new business.” [9]
It could be that you care little for your 9-5 and are setting up this new venture as a way to, with luck, eventually pivot to your side hustle full time. If that’s the case, in theory you could phone it in at the office, just doing enough to scrape by, then dedicating the bulk of your energy to your preferred work. This is a nice idea, but can be flawed in practice.
If you work a 9-5, you’re at your day job eight hours a day. If all that time, you are doing the bare minimum, that is going to impact you. There exists such a thing as momentum. If you slouch around for eight hours a day, you run the risk of becoming a slouch –– and then where will your new venture be? Not to mention you run the risk of getting fired for lousy performance; all of a sudden your new scheme to make more money has left you stripped of your financial base.
You’re also likely to burn relationships. People around the office or clients will see you as someone not worth doing business with. They may remember that when you’re going it alone and reaching out to them for help later. It’s better to make yourself a good employee and carry that through to all aspects of your work, in-office and out. As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, writes: “If you’re looking to make a change, then I say stop worrying about results and start worrying about your identity. Become the type of person who can achieve the things you want to achieve” [10]. Don’t be someone who works hard on just one thing; be a hard worker.
It could be that you do also have some boring, administrative work to do as part of your day to day job. And as noted earlier, you should know yourself well enough to know what time of day you tend to work best. Try and get this less engaging work done during times when you’re in a bit of a lull anyway, rather than wasting your best energy on them. As Virginia Hogan more bluntly puts it, “Use your least productive times to do boring work on your employer’s dime.” [11]
Hogan also recommends organising work based on how badly other people are depending on it. She calls this approach her “Avoid Receiving Angry Emails” plan. “This is loosely defined,” she writes, “but I mean whether or not there will be professional consequences for you if you don’t complete tasks in a timely manner.” [12]
You don’t want your day job and your side hustle to overlap. But if you find yourself in a position where you’re facing potential negative professional consequences in one endeavour without much to do in the other, there are exceptions to be made. But don’t normalise it. It will come back to bite you.
Hustling
Juggling a full-time job and a side hustle in today’s high-cost, high-inflation economy is, for many, not merely a trend but a necessity. But the challenge of balancing these dual roles requires strategic planning and diligent execution. Workers need to be realistic about their capacity and the demands of their full-time job. Without careful consideration, the risk of burnout and potential negative impacts on their primary employment increases. Effective time management is key. side hustles should be well-planned, with assigned hours every week and a clear, attainable fiscal target in mind. By entering into a side-venture with these things in mind, one can grow their income, develop their passions, and learn new skills for life.
More on Time Management
Oliver Burkeman Four Thousand Weeks: Time And How To Use It – Podcast
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
How to Focus and Become Indistractable with Nir Eyal – Podcast
Sources
[2] https://www.finder.com/uk/business-banking/side-hustle-statistics
[11] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ginnyhogan/2023/04/17/how-to-balance-your-full-time-job-with-your-side-hustle/ [12] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ginnyhogan/2023/04/17/how-to-balance-your-full-time-job-with-your-side-hustle/
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