What you should know about maintaining more than one job.

Finally…

You’ve landed your dream job or gained admission into an institution to pursue your preferred course of study.
You expect things to go as smoothly as possible but then your side hustle which initially supported you is either becoming demanding or your new chapter is just after your life.

Well, it does happen. Most people eventually just decide on one and drop the other. As far as Next Job is concerned, maintaining a good work balance between your day job and a side hustle is necessary. It is a fundamental skill one must develop or enhance to be successful in the world of work.

Balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices.

Besty Jacobson

How to achieve balance

Let’s consider four operational approaches to help maintain work and side hustle balance.

1. Make a practical schedule

Maintaining a healthy balance between your work and a side hustle is primarily a matter of organization. Planning and sticking to a roster does the trick. It’s said so easily but then its application is not trouble-free.

Design a checklist that would allow you to track your activities and keep you updated on your work plan. Fortunately, some Apps can help one achieve this. Todoist, Any.do, Doodle, Calendly, Google Calendar, etc

Download any of them that suit your needs. These Apps can make planning easy and prevent clashes between your two jobs.

It is worthy to keep in mind the thorn in this plausible idea – procrastination. To stick with your schedule you would have to be disciplined. Canceling activities or chores is not necessarily a means of balancing one’s day job and side hustle. It is just a coping mechanism to make one feel better.

2. Know when to stop

I have read many articles that advise people in stressful situations to continually push and give their all so that they can achieve great things. However, the reality is that sometimes we deserve a break. Know that quality is the goal and as such there should not be any room for mediocrity.

When you feel there’s a need to break, do so. It’s a must. Taking a break would help you regain stability. The benefits would be evident in your work output.

3. Prioritize your activities.

When it comes to working more than one job, the fact is that you’ll enjoy one job better than the other. This is where care must be taken so that standards are not compromised.

Consider a scenario. Your regular job is being audited and this has tensioned every employee, yourself included, would that be the right time to accept express orders or offers for your side hustle? Decide, which job is your priority?

Examine additional precepts. Will the quality of my brand be affected negatively since I would be working under extreme pressure? Will it affect my performance at one job since I will have to dedicate more time to meet the deadlines of my clients in the other job? Will it affect my self-care routine meaning I would have to lose sleep and feel haggard?

An affirmative answer to these questions is a hint to push on the brakes and reconsider your priorities.

4. Accept help

Many people view accepting help as a weakness. Rather, accepting help is a sign of maturity. Admitting you can not be doing everything on your own is an avenue to engage like-minded people to help expand your side hustle. Friends and relatives may assist with publicity and delivery. Training others to fill in for you when you are unavailable would be terrific in keeping your balance.

We asked a few young entrepreneurs about how they keep two jobs. Their experiences will inspire us not to give up when we have to combine our regular job and our side hustle.

It can be a bit challenging. But scheduling my daily activities has helped bridge the stress gap. I strictly dedicate the stipulated time for my day job to my day job without compromising. I strictly follow my work schedule. I make wigs only after the closing of work or over the weekends. I also don’t take express orders to maintain the set standard for my quality brand. Focusing too much on quantity would make this impossible currently but I hope to expand shortly.- Efya (Blaq wigs)

I’m running a startup. Accepting the fact that I can’t be schooling and running my side business on my own when demand increased helped me very much. Though I followed a schedule, there were days when demand was higher than expected. I had to teach other family members the trade. In cases where I was unavailable, they helped out. This has helped me balance my school life and keep my side hustle intact. – Quadwo (Kays Snack ‘N’ Lunch)

Being a content creator and working an 8-4 job is hectic. But it all stems down to passion. I make sure the content I create resonates with my work. Though I work in a production house (Creat Haurs) as an employee, I’ve been granted creative freedom to create and explore. That helps me work my side hustle alongside. However, on busy days at work, I make time at home after work to create content or I shoot a series of videos on weekends and schedule my posts across the week. In all, I would say not procrastinating maintains my balance.- Lois (Odaseni recipes)

Juggling a regular job, side job, or school and other tasks may be daunting. Nevertheless, with industry, discipline, and tough-mindedness one can successfully survive working more than one job.