Extreme Side-Hustling Makes You Busy & Tired, Not Rich. To Earn More, Do This Instead.
Maybe, it is time to stop touting the glamour of hustling 24/7 and be practical.
Many people hustle on the side.
They also believe that hustling more allows them to earn more.
If you fall into this camp, I have 2 questions for you.
- Are you already committing a lot of time to your day job and side-hustles?
- If you aim to earn 10x more from your side-hustles, does it mean you must commit 10x more time?
I will explore these 2 questions in greater detail below.
Logical Thinking Leads to Practical Takeaways
I am not kidding when I say this. I think about those 2 questions a lot.
“Questions open a space in your mind that allow better answers to breathe.”
That is the problem with goal-oriented people. I assess plans by breaking them down.
This is what I do, and I urge you to try this exercise.
- First, ask yourself how much you are earning from your side-hustles currently.
- For me, I earn about $3,000 from my freelance copywriting projects.
- Next, ask yourself how much time you are (currently) committing to earning that amount.
- For me, that would be 3 hours every evening, excluding weekends.
- Then, work out your hourly charge-out rate.
- For me, that would be $3,000 / (3 hours * 22 days) = $45.50.
Now, ask yourself forward-thinking questions.
- What are your target earnings from your side-hustles?
- For me, it is $6,000.
- Okay, write it down.
- Then, work out how much more time you need to commit to getting there using the previous data points.
- For me, that would be $6,000 / $45.50 = 132 hours (or 6 hours every weekday evening).
- Take a pause and ask yourself if that is possible.
I get stuck in deep thoughts each time I work on this exercise. Logical thinking, expressed in mathematical form, is a language of practicality. It shines a beam of light into our thinking minds.
First, 3 hours every evening is my capacity maximum for my copywriting side-hustles. I am running on low energy as my day job would have depleted the bulk of my mental battery. And writing is not an activity that we can perform mechanically over time.
If you don’t believe what I say, run this experiment. Try writing simple social media content posts on LinkedIn or Twitter for an hour without rest. I guarantee that you will experience fatigue by the 10th content piece.
Fatigue is not privy to copywriting. It applies to all side-hustles.
Joe, a long-time friend of mine, trades options in the U.S. markets. He told me that he stops trading after 2 hours because he is no longer sharp and is more likely distracted by analyst recommendations.
Next, you cannot multiply time. Committing 2x more time because you want to 2x your earnings is an impossible equation. All human beings are subjected to only 24 hours a day.
If you want to work more on your side-hustles, something else must give. What would your choice be?
Spending less time with family? Hustle during your day job and risk getting fired?
I don’t know about you. But those are options I am not willing to exercise.
And So, What Should We Do?
First question. How much available time do you have for your side-hustles?
“People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.”
Go through your day and write down that number. For me, my day job takes up to 12 hours. I need 8 hours of sleep. That leaves 4 hours. I can commit 3 hours to my copywriting side-hustle and 1 hour for Me-Time.
You may have a different number from me. That is fine. But identify that number.
You will quickly realize that attempting multiple side-hustles at once creates fatigue, not income. To earn, you need time to deliver. And so, my recommendation is this.
Start with 1 hustle on the side. Stick to it until you are good enough to increase your charge-out rates.
Let us revisit the mathematical expression. If you are currently earning $50 per side-hustling hour, then work to increase the dollar earnings per hour before exploring new side-hustles.
Remember. Exploration is costly when measured in time. Newbies don’t earn. They learn.
You can explore the following to increase your charge-out rates.
- Take time to find clients that value your work. These clients will pay you what you ask for.
- Avoid clients on the cheap. They will demand everything while paying close to nothing.
- Increase your service offer catalog, so the same clients buy more from you. If you work on copywriting on the side, consider running social media campaigns. They complement.
- Don’t spend too much time pursuing new clients. Instead, spend more time servicing existing clients and spend time upselling during the delivery lifecycle.
- You become time-efficient, and earnings per client increase.
- As a personal rule-of-thumb, I keep a maximum of 5 clients at any one time to understand them better.
Focus your efforts to get better results. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Chances are, it is not worth your time and energy.
Summary
“Having clarity about the destination makes the journey more beautiful.”
I believe in hustling. But we must hustle with the end in mind.
Endless, extreme hustle does not make us rich. It makes us needlessly busy and unnecessarily tired. You are already fatigued from your day job. There is no need to destroy yourself further.
Instead, be practical.
Work out what you want to achieve, what you want to do. Then, decide the amount of time you are willing to commit daily.
You can build your side-hustling empire methodically once you have these data points.
Step by step.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
