More and more often, we hear about having a side hustle. They’re such a powerful tool for anyone that has more than one passion, and I think they’re particularly powerful for millennials. But… what are they? Why do we need one? And, how on earth can we make time for one?! We’re going to cover all of this here. So, grab a warm beverage, and let’s get to work.

What is a side hustle?

First things first, let’s go over what a side hustle is. Basically, a side hustle is a hobby, job, or pursuit that you have outside of your normal 9-5 job. It’s different than a second job part time job, though, in that it’s usually something you’re running on your own. It can be a blog, a small company, writing a book, or freelancing, for example. The essence of a side hustle is that you’re pursuing a passion or interest separate of your full-time job.

Related: Guide to beginning to freelance.

Why do I need one?

There are lots of reasons to have a side hustle, but the primary one is that you likely have several interests! You shouldn’t only have to exercise one while you’re at work every day. For millennials, side hustlers are especially important. They allow you to explore you a variety of interests and help you learn what you really want to do with your career and your time. We don’t need to only be defined by our professional career path, I know you’ve got more interests than just your job!

Other reasons? A big incentive is that you can earn extra money. If you’re creating a small product to sell, or consulting occasionally, or running a profitable website, these are all ways to earn extra money.

Related: Side Income Ideas

Great, how do I make time for it?!

Excellent question! If you’re anything like me, you need planners and to-do lists to function. For better or worse, it’s just the way I’m programmed. The internet and particularly Pinterest have no shortage of templates and ideas for planners. However, I’ve found that they’re all applicable for your full-time job, or, mostly for those who are entrepreneurs and their blog or creative business has become their full-time job. But, the entire point of a side hustle is that it’s your hustling around your full-time job.

For instance, this is an example of one of my favorite planners from Just A Girl and Her Blog and how it looked when I’d try to plan my side hustle on it.

See how much space was wasted on the planner from the time I was at my 9-5 job?! It made no sense.

The Side Hustle Planner

Since I couldn’t find a planner that focused on my time outside of my full-time job, I made one! Let me tell you, my productivity has boosted since I’ve started using this baby. I applied a technique called time blocking, but made it work around my side hustle schedule. At first, it seems a bit intense to schedule every. single. hour. outside of your job, but it really helps get things done. It helps you know that you’ll have time to accomplish all on your to-do list before you begin. Most importantly, it allows you to focus on one thing at a time, which we all know is the key to productivity.

You can see that I’ve blocked out the times we’re at our 9-5 jobs completely so that we can focus on only planning out our side hustles. I made a version for early birds and night owls.

Maximize your side hustle planner

To make the most of this system, I keep a PDF version of this open on my computer all day. As you think of tasks you need to do the following day or later in the week, type it into your planner. Then, before you go to bed each night, spend about 5 minutes going through and allocating each task to a specific time. This also works well because if I think of something I need to do but am in the middle of something else, I can just write it in my planner and know that I’ll find a time to do it later. But, importantly, I’m not stopping in the middle of a task to work on something else. That’s inefficient, and us side hustlers repel inefficiency. 🙂

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do, and please let me know what you think of it! Sign up below and this planner (along with other productivity resources) will land right in your inbox! If you do use them, I’d love to hear how it goes!