This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
In this episode, we're going to look at the challenges of avoiding burnout while growing a side hustle. We're going to hear specifically from a graphic designer. I think he is in Washington state, could be wrong about that. But wherever he is, he's feeling the pressure of balancing multiple responsibilities. Isn't that how it is these days?
We've all got so many things that we are trying to look after, manage, be somewhat responsible for. It could be the demands of juggling a nine to five freelance projects, starting a new business, obviously your personal life, your relationships, childcare, elder care, all kinds of things that people are dealing with. And it can take a toll on your mental health and lead to burnout if not managed effectively. At the same time, the answer is not just to abandon your goals of having a side hustle or to create economic empowerment. Because ultimately, if you can do that, that will allow you to mitigate some of the stress elsewhere.
Right? So it's a little bit tricky, but I think it's super important to focus on. Let's see what we can do to advise Jensen and anybody else out there. How can you in fact, set realistic goals? That's part of what we'll talk about.
But how do you do that, maintain the alignment integration with your whole life, your side hustle, your work, your life, all that kind of stuff. A detailed question coming up after this quick message from our sponsor, stay tuned. Hey there, I'm Jensen, a graphic designer who's been following you for years. Inspired by many of the stories I've heard, I've been running my side hustle for about six months. And while I love the creative work, I'm starting to feel the strain on my mental health.
Balancing my full time job, freelance projects and personal life has been incredibly challenging and I'm worried about burning out. What techniques can I use to stay motivated, manage stress and maintain a healthy work life balance while still growing my business? Hey Jensen, I hear you. I appreciate the question. It's something a lot of people think about.
I think in general, sometimes people worry about the wrong things when they're moving from the world of full time employment to side hustling, hybrid employment or going full time on their own. They sometimes worry about some logistics and things that are pretty easy to solve like how do I set aside money for taxes and what kind of legal structure do I need? Those are important things, but they're pretty simple to solve. I think they don't think enough about how their lifestyle is going to change as part of this. And so to avoid burnout and maintain that work life balance, if that's what it is, I tend to think more about integration and just overall alignment and whatever form of self-employment you're moving into, even if it is hybrid.
A couple of things that help, realistic goals and boundaries. Just be honest with yourself about how much time and energy you're going to have. Most likely you're going to be really excited about this project and you want to put more time into it. You see how you are holding back the growth in some ways. Like if you had more time, you could do a lot more, but you don't have more time.
So just kind of accepting that and establishing some boundaries between your day job, your freelance work, your personal life. Being selective, like learning to say no, both to other people and also to projects that you want to do. I think that's always been one of my greatest challenges. It's not that I have a hard time saying no to other people. I mean, I do, but more often have a hard time of like, "Oh, there's like three things I want to do, so I'm going to do all three of them." And sometimes you can't.
Sometimes there is merit in saying like, "I'm really going to focus on this one side hustle project or for this busy phase in my day job, I might have to even put this other project on hold." So just kind of learning to plan for that and maybe scheduling some breaks and downtime, learning a bit about automation and outsourcing as you go. Like if you just learn a little bit over time, if you can spend 15, 20 minutes a day working on something like where you have an idea in advance of what that task is going to be, that is going to help you and you're going to be better off. And if every month or every quarter you are making some improvements, then before long, you're going to have a real business. It just takes time. And so I encourage you to do everything you can to avoid that burnout just because it'll keep you motivated more in the future.
And of course, many people are navigating this in lots of different ways. So I salute you. I cheer you on. I'm wishing you well. If you give up at some point, come on back later.
It's okay. There's always time. Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know what's on your mind, how we can be of service as we go into the second half of the year here. And of course, new episodes every day, seven days a week. This was 2,733.
I'll be back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
