Practice Self-Care When You Start a Side Hustle
According to Mint Formations, over 3 million people in the UK plan to open a small business. Unfortunately, most need to continue working their full-time jobs to support themselves. A side hustle can eventually provide enough income to leave your present employment, but it can take up much of your time before that happens.
As much as you want your side gig to succeed, you must take care of yourself. Self-care is often overlooked, and that can have detrimental effects on all aspects of your life. Here are some tips from Virgin Hair and Beauty for maintaining your self-care when starting a side hustle.
Scheduling Is Key
If you have full-time employment, a family, and want to start a side gig, staying organised is crucial. You only have so much time in a day, and it’s easy to forget important events or tasks.
Keep a detailed planner that includes family events, job tasks, and business needs. Be sure to plan time for yourself, and fit your schedule to your needs and preferences. If you’re a night owl, you might stay up to work on your business after the kids are in bed. If you’re a morning person, consider waking up a couple of hours earlier.
Keep Up With Your Business Needs
When you’re just starting out, you’ll probably handle most aspects of your new business alone. You must:
- Order or produce and keep track of your inventory
- Implement an advertising and marketing scheme
- Respond to customer enquiries
- Deal with your accounting and finances
- Process orders or provide services
Research ways to make these things more manageable. You can consider hiring freelancers to do some tasks or find and utilise software or apps to assist you as well.
Organise Your Files
You’ll need access to your essential files on the go. Google and other platforms allow you to convert documents and emails into PDF format. PDF files are easy to organise and search, and you can download them to your phone or tablet for easy access. For Google Docs, you have a couple of options to convert it to a PDF. Under the File menu, you’ll find options to either download the document as a PDF or email it as a PDF. This makes it convenient to share documents without having to bother with editing permissions.
Take Care of Yourself
You’ll be spending more hours actively working on your business and trying to juggle your job and family life as well, so your physical and mental health can suffer. To maintain a healthy work-life balance, be sure to:
- Eat healthy meals and drink enough water
- Exercise, even if only a few minutes daily
- Get enough sleep
- Find ways to relax, such as reading, doing yoga, or cuddling with children or pets
- Try not to worry about work or your business during family or alone time
You’ll feel better if you like the way you look, so take time to get your nails done, get a new hairstyle, or buy a new outfit.
Set Reasonable, Achievable Goals
Although you want your business to grow and succeed, realise that it takes time. If the goals you set are too high, you’ll likely overwork trying to reach them and may fail. You’ll probably also strain your family life, adversely affect your health, and your regular job performance may suffer.
Ready, Set, Go!
You can find a lot of fulfilment—along with some extra money—by starting a side gig, but be smart about how you integrate it into your life. Self-care is essential to your mental and physical health, and your personal relationships will also benefit. Setting and keeping an organised schedule is crucial to reduce stress and to stay on track with all that you need to do.