How to Structure Your Day for 10x Productivity as a Side-Hustler Holding a Full-Time Job
Time is not our limitation. Energy is. Energy allows us to be at our best in our day job, and in our side-hustles.
Contrary to popular belief, I think energy is more important than time. You can have all the time in the world to do great things, but if you have nothing left in the tank, nothing gets accomplished.
This is especially true for side-hustlers, creative folks, and basically, everyone working at their study room desk after office hours. We have to think, connect, create, market, sell and produce. Even collecting payment from our freelancing clients require energy.
The better way to approach this modern-day side-hustler energy crisis is to view our day holistically, not 9–6 versus 6–9. Transiting from our 9–6 into our 6–9 takes energy too. It is like triathletes in Transition 2, where they complete their bike segments and get ready for the competitive run.
How can we structure our day to have enough energy left in our tanks when our 6–9 comes around? How can we be productive throughout the entire day?
Plan Out Your Work-At-Home and Work-In-The-Office Days
This is a result of personal experience. Of course, an explanation of what I do frames the context.
I am a presales technology consultant by day. My day job requires me to meet clients, pitch, conduct product demonstrations, and attend to existing clients. I liaise with working teams around the clock as there are offices around the world.
I am a copywriter, content creator, livestreamer by night. I need time to work on my delivery, writing, and securing guests for the show. I need time to look for prospects on Linkedin Navigator too.
Therefore, to be comprehensibly productive, I have to be clear on the nature of work that complements, not work against one another. I handle it by structuring my week ahead into 2 buckets.
The structure of my Work-At-Home days look like this:
- Mornings — Work on the day job. I leave mornings empty to work on client proposals, refining product pitches, and demonstrations. Basically, no human contact time. This is simply me, my work, and how to perform my work better. You cannot find me on Calendly or Google Chat at this time.
- Afternoons — Work on the day job. I hold virtual meetings with clients, prospects, internal meetings through collaboration tools such as Google Meet, Zoom, Teams. I prefer to run all meetings back-to-back, so I do not lose energy on the meeting-to-work transition. This is my talking time.
- Evenings — Work on side-hustles. If my afternoons are spent on meetings, I will work on myself for the evening. This is where I focus on writing web copy and planning out my social media content for the week ahead. I will schedule it into my social media manager software before closing the day.
Tip: I prefer to bring all similar tasks together in 3-hour blocks. For instance, grouping all my meetings together from 1 pm — 4 pm. That said, some blocks cannot be repeated. I do not meet clients for my copywriting projects as a side-hustler that evening if I am meeting clients for my day job on the same day. My attention, energy, and focus will not be there. So, I learned to separate them.The structure of my Work-In-The-Office days look like this:
- Mornings — I hold client workshops or product demonstrations. I will be out visiting various client offices for the entire morning.
- Afternoons — Back in the office, working on proposals, checking work submitted by team members, having 1-on-1 sessions for coaching the team, and meeting my managers for discussion or advice.
- Late afternoon transition — This is my break time. I tend to be tired by the late afternoon when I am out and about. I need a 30-minute break to refill the energy tank, regardless of what I do for the evening.
- Evenings — Work on side-hustles. Work-In-The-Office days are more stressful than Working-At-Home days due to commute. Therefore, I work on less energy-demanding side-hustles. This is the time when I go on-air to do livestreams. I also use this time to appear on podcasts or webinars. I do not work on my copywriting projects as my copy will be incoherent, and I have to re-write the next day.
Tip: Energy moves in waves and cycles. For maximum daily productivity, structure your day that goes high-key, low-key, high-key, low-key. You get to refill your energy tank during low-key activities. Packing all high-key activities into the same day is like squeezing all varsity classes into 1 day. Nothing enters the organ between our ears.Summary
Have a bird’s eye view of our daily life.
Maybe you see your day in 2 distinct parts, defined by your day job (9–6) and side-hustles (6–9). That is true, but what is true also is we work from 9 in the morning till 9 in the evening.
How we can be productive for 12 hours is the key. If you are washed out by your day job, you cannot pay attention to your freelancing clients. Having the energy to cope matters.
From that perspective, knowing how to get more done without wiping ourselves out before 6 in the evening matters. Be practical with your energy expenditure, just like triathletes do.
Their race does not end in Transition 2. It ends at the finish line.
Our workday does not end at 6 in the evening. It ends when we shut our laptops for the day when we are done with our side-hustles.
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.
