How to Balance a Side Hustle with a Full-time Job

Many professionals turn to side hustles to explore their passions, supplement their income, or work toward personal goals. According to a survey by Small Business Loans Australia, 38 per cent of Australians intend to run a side hustle alongside full-time roles. However, adding another commitment to an already busy schedule requires careful planning and prioritisation to avoid burnout and ensure success.

In this blog, we’ll dive into practical strategies for how to balance a side hustle with a full-time job without sacrificing your well-being or quality of work. From mastering time management techniques to setting clear boundaries, these tips will help you make the most out of both your main career and your side passion.

Challenges of balancing a side hustle with full-time work

Time constraints

One of the biggest challenges side hustlers face is time management. No matter how hard we work, there are only 24 hours in a single day. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the maximum weekly hours an employee can work is 38, or 7.6 hours per weekday (see here for more information and exceptions). This leaves 16.4 hours a day.

According to the Real Australian Commute Report 2022, the average Australian worker spends 54 minutes per day commuting to and from work. If you’re lucky, you might be one of 37 per cent of Australians that work from home. However, with many employers eager to get employees back in the office, many workers will still need to travel to the office between 3-5 times a week.

Most adults need at least 7-9 hours of sleep a night, though your individual sleep needs may vary. While it may be tempting to cut back on sleep and use that extra time to complete your to-dos, sleep deprivation can have a massive impact on your health and well-being. Studies have shown that moderate sleep deprivation can have similar effects as being intoxicated. Chronic sleep deprivation can also increase your risk of heart disease, obesity, and dementia. 

None of this includes the hours you spend preparing meals, running household errands, or attending social events. Factoring in these activities, it can be difficult to find enough hours to work a side hustle. Thankfully, many side hustles are designed with flexible hours and remote work in mind.

Managing stress and burnout

While a side hustle can reduce other stressors in your life, such as financial worries, it can also lead to burnout if you push yourself too hard. 1-in-2 Australian workers aged 18-54 feel exhausted at work, but only around 50 per cent seek assistance to manage their stress. It’s important to manage your stress and maintain a proper work-life balance while working on your side hustle dreams.

If your side hustle idea is built on an existing hobby, the personal attachment can make it harder to take breaks or delegate tasks. Without boundaries, the risk of burnout increases. Any failures will hit much more personally, and it can be easy to lose motivation when overwhelmed. To successfully manage a side hustle without sacrificing your mental health, it’s critical to set realistic goals and expectations.

Time management tips for side hustlers

Time management is one of the most crucial aspects of side hustling. Balancing multiple responsibilities can be overwhelming, but effective time management allows you to spend time strategically, ensuring you meet your goals without sacrificing other important areas of your life. Here are some ways to manage your time between a side hustle and full-time work. 

Setting priorities and goals

Setting priorities and goals when starting a side hustle is crucial for both productivity and long-term success. Without clear goals, it’s easy to lose focus, forget other things, or become overwhelmed by the many tasks involved in building a side business while working full-time. Goals give you a roadmap for the future, allowing you to break down the process into manageable steps and keep track of your progress. Prioritising tasks ensures you’re spending time on what matters most - whether that’s marketing, product sourcing, or client outreach - so you can efficiently grow your hustle without wasting energy on activities that don't move the needle.

Additionally, clear priorities and goals help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. When you know exactly what you’re working toward, it’s easier to set boundaries between your side hustle and other areas of your life, such as your primary job, personal time, and family commitments. This helps prevent burnout and ensures your side hustle remains a source of fulfilment rather than stress. 

Creating a weekly schedule

Creating a weekly schedule is an essential tool for any small business owner. With a full-time job or other responsibilities to balance, time can quickly slip away, making it challenging to stay on track with side business goals. A schedule helps you allocate specific blocks of time to your side hustle, allowing you to focus on priority tasks, reduce procrastination, and track your progress. When you plan ahead, you can set aside time for active creative time, self-care, and social interactions, keeping your life balanced. When you know exactly what you’re working on each week, you can end each day with a sense of accomplishment and confidence that you’re moving toward your goals.

Eliminating distractions

It seems obvious, but eliminating distractions is an important aspect of time management. Research has shown that Australian workers can lose up to 600 hours a year to distractions, with the most distracting activities being work-related chat messages (166 hours), followed by personal activities (146 hours) and work-related emails (82 hours).

The easiest way to eliminate distractions at work is to put away your personal devices and keep a dedicated workspace clear of clutter, background noise or other distractions. When the interruptions come from work, however, it can be more difficult. Some tips to manage workplace distractions include:

Set aside specific times to check emails and respond to messages, rather than tackling notifications immediately.

Establish firm boundaries and communicate them clearly to coworkers, friends and family.

Identify times of day when you are the most productive and use this time for high-intensity work. 

Use the Pomodoro technique: Work in focused, 25-minute intervals followed by a 5-minute break. After four cycles, take a longer break.

Tools and automation to create side hustle success

Did you know that 68 per cent of employees have too much work to handle in a single day? When the odds are already stacked against you, productivity and automation tools can be a lifesaver. Here are some of our top tools to boost your productivity and automate your daily tasks.

Productivity apps

OneNote

Created by Microsoft, OneNote is a digital note-taking application that helps to organise your notes, to-do lists, ideas and tasks into a flexible, organised digital notebook. The app allows you to type, handwrite, draw, and clip content from the web directly into your notes. You can embed images, videos and other files, and its cloud-based storage system makes it easy to sync across devices. Finally, you can easily share your notes with others so you can collaborate, share knowledge, and keep track of your tasks easily, whether for work or personal use. You can download OneNote for free for Windows, Mac, or smart devices, though some advanced features may require an Office 365 subscription.

ChatGPT

You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence program that generates text according to user-submitted prompts. But do you know how many tasks ChatGPT can help you accomplish? Here are some other creative applications for this versatile program that go beyond content generation:

• Customer support: ChatGPT drives many customer support systems. It can help guide customers through the onboarding process, answer common queries, troubleshoot issues, and generally improve the customer experience.

• SEO: ChatGPT can be used to generate keyword-rich content, optimise existing content, or suggest keyword lists designed to boost web traffic.

• Debug and fix code: ChatGPT can examine, fix and generate code, making it easier for inexperienced web developers to troubleshoot their website or other applications.

• Personalisation: ChatGPT can assist businesses in creating personalised recommendations based on customer preferences and past experiences. It can also help personalise your marketing at scale. 

Toggl Track

Keeping track of how you spend your time can be difficult, especially if you’re constantly switching between devices or tasks. Toggl Track is a time-tracking software designed to help individuals and teams manage and analyse how they spend their time. Toggl Track enables users to categorise tasks, set project budgets, and track billable hours. It also offers insights through visual reports, helping to analyse productivity patterns, improve project planning, and optimise time management. It has many integrations available, helping you to easily incorporate it into your existing workflows. While Toggl Track offers premium plans, the free plan is incredibly robust and perfect for solo entrepreneurs or teams of under 5 employees. 

Automation tools for repetitive tasks

Zapier

Zapier is a comprehensive automation tool that allows you to create custom automated workflows. The app can integrate with over 6,000 apps, so you can have automated workflows  for almost any task, from marketing activities to customer service. Zapier is easy to use, and comes with plenty of pre-built integrations and workflows to execute even the most complex tasks with a single trigger. Zapier comes with a free plan that allows you to automate 100 tasks per month using their core features, while their paid plans start at $47.45 for 750 tasks as well as additional features.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides powerful tools for marketing, sales, customer service, and content management. Its automation features allow you to automate tasks like follow-up emails, meeting scheduling, and lead assignment. The platform also offers tools for capturing, tracking, and nurturing leads through forms, landing pages, and pop-ups. Finally, its robust analytics tools will provide insights into marketing, sales and service performance, and generate custom reports to help you measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. The HubSpot marketing hub offers plenty of free tools for all businesses, or you can sign up to their paid plans for simple marketing automations, starting at $22 per month. 

Buffer

Buffer is a social media management toolkit that helps to plan, schedule and analyse social media marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. Buffer offers features like post scheduling, visual planning with a calendar, performance analytics, and engagement tools that allow users to interact with comments and messages. It also provides insights into post engagement and audience metrics, helping users refine their strategies over time. It’s known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to create and organise content in advance, enabling a consistent posting schedule without the need for manual updates. Buffer offers a free plan with basic planning and publishing tools as well as an AI assistant, but you’ll have to subscribe to their paid plans (starting at $5 per month) for engagement and analytics tools.

Setting boundaries and managing expectations

Communicating with family and friends

When setting boundaries with family and friends around work, it’s important to clearly set expectations about what they can expect from you, and what you expect from them. You may need to be assertive, and make sure you clearly state (and follow through with) the consequences of breaking boundaries. For instance, you might set clear hours that you will be uncontactable, either by work or by family. During these times, ensure your device is set to ‘do not disturb’ or remove it from the space entirely. 

If you feel overwhelmed, unmotivated or otherwise lacking support, don’t be afraid to talk to supportive friends and family. Making time to develop and nurture your support network is equally important, whether this means weekly family dinners or regular catch-ups with friends.

Maintaining professionalism at your full-time job

It’s important to maintain professionalism at your full-time job, even if you intend to turn your side hustle into your main source of income. The easiest way to do this is to monitor your wellbeing by getting enough sleep, exercise and nutrition. Beyond this, there are a few strategies you can employ to maintain professionalism at work.

Firstly, check your workplace policies. Some workplaces have non-compete clauses that may prevent you from starting a side hustle in the same industry, or even taking on a second job entirely. Avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible.

Avoid working on your side hustle during your regular working hours. If you can, keep your side project work entirely at home. Even if you have significant downtime at work, your employer will likely frown upon you using business resources (including your time) on personal matters.

Finally, be transparent with your employer. Open communication fosters trust, which will benefit you and your business in the long run. You might even be able to demonstrate benefits of your side hustle to your employer - for instance, if your side hustle involves learning new skills that will enhance your overall performance and productivity. 

Summary

Balancing a full-time job with a side hustle can be challenging, but with the right strategies, it’s entirely achievable. By setting clear goals, managing your time wisely, and prioritising tasks, you can build a sustainable routine that allows you to pursue both your main career and your side passion. With dedication and planning, you can turn your side hustle into a rewarding venture that complements - not competes with - your full-time day job.