How to Work Full-Time and Still Make Extra Money From Side Hustles

How to Work Full-Time and Still Make Extra Money From Side Hustles

Working full-time and still having time to make extra money doing side hustles needs a lot of planning.  Most people fear side hustles because they feel that they might take a lot of their time and affect the productivity of their full-time jobs. The US has more than 44 million people who work full-time and still have side hustles. But do they get an overnight success? How do they manage this?

While side hustles like blogging cannot bring immediate results after starting, you can earn extra money from them with time. Other side hustles like, starting a podcast, writing a book or freelancing also require a lot of time invested before seeing results. Some other side hustles are things you can do in your free time that you can do to make extra money right away if you need cash right away but are not really things you can grow over time. Use the tips below to work full-time and on your side hustles too.

 

Start a side hustle that won’t affect your productivity

What kind of side hustle do you have in mind? Will it affect your full-time job performance?  Some ways to make extra money are easy things you can do while vegging in front of the television int he evening that will not require your complete focus. Others will need more of your complete focus and attention to build into something over time that could turn into a full-time side hustle allowing you to quit your job.  There are all different kinds of side hustles and some definitely have the potential for growth more than others. Remember that a lack of sleep can also affect your full-time job, so whatever time you decide to set aside for your side hustle, make sure you are still getting enough sleep to be able to focus on your full-time job.

Write down your goals

What was the reason why you wanted a side hustle? What do you want to achieve?  Create clear and achievable goals. When setting your goals, confirm whether you are doing it out of passion or because you want money. Is it something you want to grow over time in the hopes that you can turn it into a full-time business or is it just something you want to be able to do in your free time just to make extra money. Are you looking for something short-term to meet a deadline you are saving for or are you trying to build something that can turn into a full-time business? 

Create a timetable to make extra money

You need to be a great time manager if you want to manage to work full-time and earning from a side hustle. After finding out your goal, it is easy to plan your time. Plan what you will deal with from the time you get out of your workplace to the time you go to bed. Be realistic about how much time you want to devote to this side hustle. Plan out exactly how many hours a day you can dedicate to it and if you want to spend time on the weekends as well. If you have a goal in mind for how much money you need to make by a certain date (i.e. saving for a vacation or something) then use a spreadsheet to track how much you can make daily if you work a certain number of hours and plan out exactly what days and hours you need to work in order to reach your deadline.

Be an early bird

Are you good at waking up early? Most people are not, waking up early helps you have more time to work on your side hustle especially if you have kids. However, everyone is different. If you are not an early bird maybe the  time when you are the most productive is in the evening after the kids are in bed for the night. Find whatever is your most productive time and make that your “work hours”. If it is during a time when  your family is around it may take them some time to get used to considering you busy and leaving you alone but eventually they will realize that during those hours your are  on the clock. Just like everything, you need to develop a habit of when  and for how long you want to work each day. Once it becomes a routine for you it will also become routine for your family. If you have a supportive spouse they might be able to pitch in to help you towards  your goal such as getting up and getting the kids ready for school while you work in the morning or getting the kids ready for bed in the evening so that you can work then. Have an open discussion about why you are doing this, what your goals are, and how you can work together to reach those goals.

Always plan ahead

Plan what you are going to do before to avoid wastage of time. A to-do list would do well in this case. Some people like to use time blocking or day blocking to help them be the most efficient with the time that they have. Time blocking means assigning time to each hour in the day. For example you might say your first hour after waking is dedicated to getting everyone breakfast and getting dressed. You then decide what hours in the day will be dedicated to your side hustle and what exactly you will be trying to accomplish during those hours. This also works very well for stay at home moms that work from home.  Day blocking is similar but you decide what you will work on each day of the week and whatever hours you have available that day you dedicate to accomplishing those things. For example if you are a  blogger then Monday might be the day you use for Facebook scheduling, Tuesday might be Pinterest scheduling, Wednesday might be your writing day, etc. You can try different strategies to see what works best for your personality and your schedule in order to create time to make extra money.

Start with the hardest task

Among your tasks, there must be the ones that seem too complicated. If you want to avoid procrastination, start with the hardest one first then do the rest. This will help you to be confident and complete the rest of time. Usually once you get the harder tasks out of the way you will feel more motivated to continue.

Train yourself how on to say no

If you start a side hustle and it becomes too demanding that it affects your full-time job, learn when to say no to some issues. For example, you might be offering services like graphic design, consultation or counseling and you get too many clients. If you want to be productive and provide high-quality work, learn to say no to some tasks at least until your are ready to quit your job and turn your side hustle into a full-time business.

It is possible to work full-time and still manage to make extra money from your side hustles. Plan and manage your time well to avoid procrastination. Be committed to your work and avoid distractions. Examples of suitable side hustles that you can consider to start are selling unwanted items online, product flipping, affiliate marketing, blogging, freelancing, scoring essays online and many others.