Planning for Your Main Hustle & Your Side Hustle
Hey, Y’all!
Today, I wanted to share some tips with you about how I plan for my main hustle, and my side hustles — first, a little background on myself. I am a full-time graduate student working on my master’s in strategic communications with a focus in Digital Media. That’s essentially my full-time job. I do it all online, so I am responsible for teaching myself all the material and making sure my assignments are turned in on time. In addition to being a student, I run a blog, work with my fiancé on our web design, graphic design, and social media management company, and I have an essential oil business. Needless to say, I’m busy. But we are all busy. We are all trying to turn a side hustle or passion project into a main hustle, while still working a main hustle to pay the bills. So how do I plan to make sure nothing slips through the cracks? Today I want to share some tips with you on how to do exactly that.
Tip #1: Find a planner or planning app that works for you
Finding the perfect planner can be hard. After years upon years of searching, I have still not found the perfect planner. (If you have recommendations let me know!) Whether it’s the Erin Condren Life Planner or a mead Cambridge edition planner, find what works for you and stick with it.
Tip #2: Color code your planner
This has been the single biggest change that has helped me stay more organized. When I go to put something in my planner, I write with a black pen, but then I underline the deadline, appointment, or whatever I just wrote with a different color. This helps me keep things straight in my mind. I know that pink is for my essential oil business, and purple is for on specific class. If you have kids, you can underline each kids’ events in different colors to keep things straight. The color coding helps me to know which hustle I’m working on. Without the color coding it just looks like a bunch of black ink on a page and I might mix up what I need to have done or which hustle something is for. Color coding helps to mitigate that problem.
Tip #3: Bring your planner with you everywhere
There is nothing worse than being out somewhere and not having your planner. You might miss a deadline; you might not be able to write something in the planner, you might not be able to check your planner to make plans with someone and end up double booking yourself. Find a planner or a planning app that you love to carry around with you. I like to work on my blog from coffee shops a lot because I feel more creative there. Bringing my planner with me is a must, so I know when I need to have certain posts written by and when I have school assignments that take priority over my side hustles.
Tip #4: Every morning write your intentions for the day
I typically write three to five things that if I accomplish in any given day then I will call the day a success. These don’t have to be huge things, sometimes for me one of my intentions is taking a shower. Other ideas are, make progress on setting up my blog, reach out to other bloggers for potential guest blogging opportunities, go to your child’s soccer game. Anything that absolutely MUST be accomplished that day should go in these intentions. I try to have at least one intention for each of my hustles that way I am working on each one on any given day. I try to balance everything and batch my work so if I am working on social media, then I work on social media for all my hustles rather than just one. If I’m working on school, I work on each of my classes instead of just one. Balance is everything and writing out your intentions for the day helps with that.
Tip #5: In the evening, reflect on how the day went
I like to think about what went well and what did not go so well. Did I accomplish everything I set out to accomplish today, if not why is that? What can I do differently tomorrow to make it go better? What did I learn today about myself or about my tasks that I didn’t previously know? Use this as a short journal to just reflect on the day.
So, there you have it, my five tips to organizing your life to help you have the most productive days possible.
Enjoy yourself and make planning fun!
I’m a health and wellness blogger, masters student (hopefully future PhD student), mental health advocate, fiance, and dog mom. I can be found reading, writing, designing, always snuggled under a warm cozy blanket. You can find me at christinmeiburg.com or on Instagram @christinmeiburg.