Six Hard Truths to Accept If You (And I Mean Really) Want to Write Alongside Your Job
Take it from me
30% said finding time for their side hustle was the biggest challenge.
It’s a seismic shift to find the space in your life to allocate 12 hours a week to this part-time creator thing.
But you can find the time if you know where to look.
Here’s how I found the time (and energy) to create alongside my 9–5.
1. Accepting the road less travelled
“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” — Zig Ziglar
It takes a whole load of resilience, patience, and discipline.
For me, it’s been 3 years of honing the craft to get it to a point where I can work alongside my 9–5 consistently.
It hasn’t been plain sailing. We live in a world where the narrative often is simplified. Someone finds their passion, starts a business, and becomes a millionaire overnight, you know the story.
The reality is that life is much messier than that. If you want to work alongside your 9–5 you must learn that the path is dirty. It’s muddy. Sometimes you’ll get lost. That’s okay. That’s to be expected.
2. Train for the marathon, not the sprint
Week 1 was the worst. I got home, slung off my bag, and scrapped around the internet, trying to understand how to build a website.
My big idea, my side hustle, was going to be building a sock business. Yep, socks. I had one idea and that was it, I was away. After 9 months of trying, I ultimately gave up but that would be the start of my 4 years of trying to work out what ‘my thing’ was.
At 22 I started that sock business. At 25, I started writing. I turned 29 this year.
It can years to find your thing. You need to make tiny steps each day.
This isn’t about making leaps on day 1.
3. Incremental steps mixed with reframing
You wouldn’t go climb Mount Everest without first structuring a training program to build you up to that.
I’ve learned this little sweetener though. It’s reframing as you go. Let me give you some examples:
Spending 20 minutes on your side hustle for the first time is a milestone.
Hitting two sessions by midweek is worthy of a mid-week celebration.
Finishing strong on a Friday means you finished the week on a high.
In other words, every time you show up, reframe it as a success. Spin the positive. It’ll do wonders for your motivation.
It’s how you keep going in the beginning when the results are minimal.
4. “I would pay to write”
The secret (or not-so-secret) to creating consistently online is to enjoy what you do. In years 0 to 3, nobody listens to a word you have to say.
It’s a gut punch, but it’s something you need to come to terms with if you want to be in this game. You will pour your heart and soul into something online for people to tell you that you don’t have a clue.
That’s your payment for winning later on.
You overcome this by making the act of working alongside your 9–5 fun.
Most days I can’t wait to write. Seriously. I can’t wait. It’s the best part of my day. I have new stuff to learn, new content to review, and new ideas to unpick. It’s the most alive I feel.
I would pay to write. That’s why I’m still writing. Nothing else matters because I love the process so much. When things get dark, I remind myself of that.
5. Monotony, method, madness
1120 days. That’s how long I’ve been tapping away on the internet.
For the last 1120 days, I’ve woken up, poured myself a coffee, sat at my desk and tip-tapped away at this computer.
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”― E. James Rohn
Creating online won’t be as fun once the novelty has worn off. Showing up, sitting down and tapping out your thoughts to a bunch of strangers on the internet is what it boils down to.
Don’t expect this creator thing to be sun and rainbows all the time. It won’t be. A lot of it is sitting in front of the computer, day after day, telling the world your thoughts. Having a good dose of reality is no bad thing.
6. Managing your tiredness
A work day can be gruelling especially if you’re commuting. Here’s the shortcut to managing that tiredness whilst committing to creating online. It’s simple but it’s not easy:
Commit to creating for 1 hour a day, 3 days a week at the start.
Create when you have the most energy.
Drink a lot of water.
Eat good food.
Exercise.
If you want a shortcut (and you shouldn’t) but if I had to pick one thing that has supercharged my day and allowed me to create consistently alongside my 9–5 it’s this: Go for a walk in the morning.
I write in the morning you see. Unless I’m ill, I’m up writing. It’s become a religion to me. The one thing that kicks my brain into gear is a morning walk with my dogs.
The fresh air, the nature, the cold. It wakes my mind up so I can write. It’s the simplest hack I know.
Join the paid newsletter. Every week I break down an experiment I’ve ran in the Part-Time Creator Club. I tell you the revenue, the numbers & all the juicy details. At $55 a year, it’s a steal (I’ll probs up the prices soon). Click here to join loads of other Part-Time Creators here.
P.s. if you liked this, give it a share :).
I really needed to read this. It put a lot of what I'm trying to do into perspective. Thank you!