A side gig can help you earn extra income for doing something you love. But it can come with a price – your precious time.
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to pay off debt or save extra money, earning extra might be the way to do it. Sure, you could do that by working overtime at your day job. Or, you could utilize your skills to create some lucrative side gig opportunities.
With the power of the Internet, you can find people who will pay you for everything from writing and Web design to playing live music. A side gig can be a great way to make extra money while doing something you already love.
(And maybe, someday, you’ll decide to turn it into the thing you do.)
But even if you love your side job, that doesn’t mean working one while working a normal 9-to-5 is easy. I can tell you from experience that it’s anything but.
My Story
I’ve been a writer since 2008, when I was a newlywed finishing my college degree. My career grew over time, but I’ve always worked part-time hours: First because I was a full-time student, and then because I became a work-at-home mom. After my daughter started day care in 2011, I began working more hours and making a decent living.
But then my husband lost his job. Though my paychecks from writing made up a substantial portion of our income, it wasn’t enough to keep us afloat. So, I picked up a day job working for the government.
It’s not glamorous, and it’s not what I wanted to do “when I grew up.” But it pays the bills, has great health care coverage and lets me continue to write on the side.
Abby Hayes with her husband and daughter.
So for the past eight months, I’ve worked a full-time job and continued writing at nearly the same pace I was before. My life is more complicated, and our house is definitely messier. But, for now, it works.
Here are some things I do to keep my sanity while making extra income writing on the side – and tips if you have a side gig, too.
1. Don’t try to do it all.
Once in a while, people will ask me how I do it all. The answer, in short, is that I don’t.
When I was freelancing on a part-time schedule, I had time to keep our home spotless, make homemade baby food for my kid, sew for fun and read for pleasure. These days, I’ve had to cut back on some of those things, though I do manage to make time for myself.
I’m still trying to find balance, but, for me, balance has meant handing much of the housework and grocery shopping to my husband, who has been working part-time. It also means I get less time to read, so I try to choose reading what I really love when I do get that time.
As my husband prepares to go back to full-time work, we’re likely going to outsource some of these tasks. I figure if I can pay someone $50 a week to clean my home, I can buy myself two or three hours on Saturdays to work on my side gig. I’ll make that $50 and then some, further my career and stay sane.
Your assignment: Make a list of three less-important things you do that you could stop doing, let your spouse or significant other do, or hire someone to do.
2. Get a good day planner.
When you have just a regular 9-to-5 job, it’s easy to jot down outside appointments on a monthly calendar. For me, that’s no longer enough. Now I have to keep track not only of family and personal appointments, but also of deadlines and mundane to-dos that can easily slip my mind with so much going on.
Right now, my husband and I favor the Cozi app, which lets us synch parts of our calendar (not to mention our grocery shopping list). It’s also great for scheduling things like interviews for pieces I’m writing, since I can set up an automatic reminder on my phone.
However, the Cozi app doesn’t do everything I’d like, so right now, I’m eyeing the Passion Planner, which is essentially made for people trying to accomplish tasks on multiple fronts.
Your assignment: Do some research to find a day planner or app that will help you manage your tasks, deadlines and appointments more effectively.
3. Leverage all your time.
It’s easy to lose track of just how much time you waste, especially when a few minutes here and there of wasted time doesn’t hurt you much. But when your life is jam-packed with stuff you’ve got to get done, you need to learn to take back those moments you spend on Facebook and Candy Crush. (Trust me, I’m preaching to the choir here.)
For instance, at my day job, we get two 15-minute breaks each day. I could use those breaks to read pointless articles on my phone. Or I could use them wisely. Lately, I’ve been trying to use both of those breaks to walk, getting in my 30 minutes of moderate exercise that day.
Sometimes I’ll also use the time to do something that’s refreshing for me, like reading a novel or talking with a co-worker I like. These things have a much bigger impact on the color of my day than 15 minutes of mindless Facebooking.
Your assignment: Take a week and do a time inventory. Jot down what you do each day in 15 or 30 minute increments. At the end of the week, you’ll have a fairly good idea of where your wasted time goes. Figure out how to redeem that time by using it for something truly rejuvenating or by getting more done.
4. Work toward your goals.
If my day job has given me anything (besides decent insurance), it’s given me the ability to truly work toward my goals. Sure, I have less time to freelance. But with a steady income behind me, I can now use what freelancing time I do have to work toward bigger, more long-term goals.
For you, maybe your side gig gives you the cash you need to stick it out in a low-paying internship that will vault your career forward. Or maybe you’re using your dead-end day job as a launchpad for your real dreams.
Either way, when you’re working both a job and a side gig, you probably don’t want to be doing it forever. It’s just not sustainable for most of us. So make every decision – which projects to tackle, whether or not to take overtime and how much of your non-work life to give up – with your long-range goals in mind.
It’s easy to get stuck in the rut – trudging through your day job and accepting whatever work meanders your way in your side gig. By focusing on long-term and short-term goals for both sides of your work life, you can avoid the tug of mediocrity to turn your life into something fulfilling.
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