Taking Time Out from Your Side Hustle

If you take some time away from your side hustle, in the following week it can be easy to feel like you’re behind. Time away from home can be enjoyable, but also tiring and you can struggle to catch up when you return from your break. Or at least it can feel like that in the first couple of days.

This is especially true if you have a side hustle, as much of the time that you have to work on this is probably over the weekend. Therefore a long weekend away is likely to have more of an impact on progress than if you have a full-time gig.

I am going to offer some strategies for you to tackle this.

My first suggestion is planning; my favourite way to be organised. If you’ve booked time away and it’s a few months down the line then you might be able to create content such as social media posts, a weekly email or blog articles ahead of time. Batching content, whatever the situation, is a good way to save time, as you are much more productive when focusing on one specific task rather than moving from one thing to the next.

Secondly I would say that having an overall picture of your year can help to look at when you have time to batch create content. It can also help you see if what you are hoping to achieve over the year is realistic. If you are planning to publish a blog post on a weekly basis, but you have several holidays or weekends when you are busy with social activities, it may be better to consider a more realistic timetable of fortnightly publishing. It’s easy to get carried away with wanting to do everything, but be honest with yourself about what’s possible. Don’t overstretch yourself.

Instead of attempting to maintain ‘business as usual’ when you’re away it is okay just to take a break. Don’t post on social media, don’t write that blog post. I think that we are particularly bad at this in the UK. In France, a country which I love to visit, small businesses often take holidays e.g. a shop is closed for a week or two and that is quite normal. So don’t tell yourself you can’t take a break. We all worry that if we do all our followers will disappear. The truth - they’ll probably not even notice! And if you’re worried that people will wonder where you are tell them you’re taking a break and when you’ll be back. (Just be careful not to advertise that your house will be empty if you’re open about where you live). Taking a break can set a good example to others, such as your kids. Smartphones have created a ‘always on’ culture, whereas years ago when you left the office you didn’t worry about work until you walked back in. With a side hustle the boundaries are much less clear. It’s up to you to put them into place.

Finally, what you do may differ from one break to the next. Sometimes you can schedule content. At other times you can just tell people you are taking a break. Decide what works for you at that particular time.

As we’re only at the beginning of the year this is a great time to consider the next ten months. Where are your busy times going to be? When are you away on holiday or got a busy social calendar. Take some time over the next couple of weeks to make a plan so that you can have a successful side hustle and some time for you.

Please share in the comments how you manage taking time out from your side hustle.