Don’t Let Your Side Gig Sidetrack Your Self-Care Routine
Ask a dozen people what their pandemic experience has been like and you can expect to get several varying answers. For some, the seemingly incessant months of self-isolation, quarantine, and social distancing fueled depression, anxiety, and perhaps even financial ruin. For others, it created opportunities, like realizing they could prosper with remote work, or just getting a confidence boost that they made it through with resiliency and innovation.
Hurdles like these can be conduits to change. Whether it’s financial necessity that is prompting you to take on a side hustle, or you’re considering a transition to a new and more rewarding career, how you look after yourself is integral to the fullness of your life. In fact, the busier you become, the more attention you need to pay to your self-care routine. Beacon shares some tips on how to get started.
Snoozing Isn’t Losing!
One of the best self-care gifts you can give yourself is adequate sleep. Unlike the adage “If you snooze, you lose,” the opposite is actually true. Optimal sleep time is one of the best ways to set yourself up for other advantageous self-care activities, such as physical exercise. It will also help you maintain focus on your necessary work activities so that you work smarter, not longer – which will also free up some time for self-care and reduce your stress levels.
For those days when your side hustle takes you into the late night hours, or just when you find yourself groggy, allow yourself a daytime nap. For some, the quick “cat nap” can do wonders for daytime productivity.
Learn to Let Go and Lean
If you’ve taken on a side hustle to grow it into a business, you’re a person with initiative – which is a fantastic trait and a necessary one for entrepreneurship, but it can also mean that you tend to take on too much. Trying to do everything yourself is a one-way ticket to burnout, and that doesn’t do you or your business any good. Look at the “busy work” that you find yourself doing every day, such as cleaning out your email inbox, updating your calendar, or purchasing office supplies. How much time would you free up if you hired even just a part-time assistant? You can start by hiring someone for a couple days a week and increase their hours as necessary.
As you learn the value of leaning on others to help you and your business, you’ll want to evaluate whether your current business formation is the right one for your growth. Forming a limited liability company, or LLC, can streamline your business and reduce liability risks and thus help you concentrate on your core business activities. To register as an LLC, you can contact an experienced lawyer or save on fees by using a business formation service like Zenbusiness.com.
Don’t forget to get help at home, as well. Hiring some domestic help can free up time for a beneficial yoga or gym class. Check out some of today’s websites and apps that do the initial screening for you. Take advantage of online grocery shopping or one of the several meal kits that deliver healthy meal ingredients to your door for easy preparation. Nutritious eating is definitely an essential self-care activity.
Self-Care Isn’t Selfish Care
It may seem indulgent to prioritize your self-care, but it’s a necessary indulgence to improve the odds of turning your side hustle turning into a successful business. You may not encounter another stressor as powerful as a pandemic, but physical and mental fitness is sound preparation for any hurdle. Remember: A healthy business needs a healthy business owner, and you owe it to your employees, customers, and other business associates to be fit in mind and body as your business grows. Your side gig started small, and so can your self-care steps.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Written by Courtney Rosenfeld
