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It’s important to regularly make time for your side hustle, but that doesn’t mean you have to treat it like another full-time job. Work on your project when it makes the most sense for you and your schedule. Use time management techniques, create a calendar for yourself, and know when to outsource work to other people or tools to keep your personal time feeling balanced.
Use time management techniques
The most important skill you need to make time for a side hustle is the ability to be disciplined about your time. That means being realistic about what you can comfortably do, figuring out what boundaries work best for you, and knowing when to lean on others for support.
Start small
Instead of committing to the most ambitious version of your side hustle from the start, is there a small-scale version you can start out with? For example, say you want to launch a side hustle doing custom nail design. Instead of buying supplies and setting up a space for a full schedule of customers, start by posting your own nail designs on social media first. From there, you can get a sense of the interest, build an audience, and slowly start taking clients a few at a time.
By taking things a little slower, you’ll have more time to test and experiment. This also protects you from overinvesting in an idea or specific version of your project before realizing you don’t have enough time to maintain it.
Find out when and how you work best
Every person works differently, and your side hustle also needs to fit around your day job and personal schedule. Think carefully about what working style is best for you. For example:
Do you work best in the morning or evening?
Can you work on your side hustle on weekdays or weekends?
Do you work best in focused blocks of time or as inspiration strikes?
Will you feel overwhelmed or energized if you use your lunch break or wake up early to work?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different styles to figure out what makes sense for you. Even if you don’t have a lot of time, finding time to focus and sticking with it will help you make steady progress.
Know when to outsource work
Even if you’re working on your side project alone, you don’t have to do it without help. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses and when to ask for help will save you time in the long run. That could mean leaning on a friend or professional for help, like getting part-time support on packing products or budgeting extra money to license music for your podcast.
It could also mean looking for tools that will speed up your workflow. For example, lean on stock photography before you have images for your website. Or find free templates for other things you need to create, like a rate sheet for your services. With a side hustle, saving even an extra hour can make a big difference.
Follow a calendar
Creating a calendar is a great way to organize your time and hold yourself accountable. You can use a calendar or project management tool to make a content or production calendar, or simply use a spreadsheet.
No matter what you’re creating, you can use a calendar to schedule time for your content or products. Depending on how you work, that could be time specifically for creating, time for editing, time for promotion, or any of the above.
Mark reminders and priorities in your calendar. As you get further along in your project, you can use the calendar to plan marketing pushes for announcements or launches. For example, you can plan out send dates for an email or social media series leading up to the launch of your first product or piece of content.
Remember to build in realistic timelines so you can work efficiently while getting plenty of free time for rest.
Make your side hustle more efficient
You can also save time and outsource some of your to-do list with the right tools. For example, starting a website for your side hustle is faster if you build it using a customizable template. Squarespace also has extensions and tools to streamline your work, like shipping tools, email marketing templates, and more.
Streamline your work with any of these tips:
Email Campaigns: Email templates help you quickly pull brand colors and images into your emails. Set up automations so that an email goes to someone after they take an action on your website, like a coupon to share after buying from you.
Social media templates: Save time on creating marketing posts with Marketing Kit in the Squarespace iOS app or the Unfold app. Marketing Kit automatically creates editable posts based on your ecommerce products and brand style. The Unfold app has hundreds of templates for trendy, engaging social media posts, so you can build a brand presence quickly.
Repurpose your content: Instead of making brand new content every time you post, find ways to reuse content across different platforms. Use product photos for a social media post or put a teaser of a blog post in a newsletter, for example.
Shipping tools: Manage more of your shipping from one dashboard. Buy and print shipping labels through Squarespace to save time. Or add extensions to help you calculate shipping costs and explore dropshipping options.
Custom merch: Quickly add products for your side hustle with a print on demand integration. Just upload a brand image, choose from products like mugs and t-shirts, and the custom merch partner takes care of production, inventory, and shipping.
With a brand new side project, it’s best to start slow. You can tailor your project to your needs so that it’s something you enjoy spending your spare time doing. As you grow and become more efficient, you can consider how you want to start earning from your work.