‘Time-chunking’ and great design … side hustle experts give their tips for success | Stand Out By Design

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‘Time-chunking’ and great design … side hustle experts give their tips for success | Stand Out By Design

The side hustle has become central to modern living. Nearly

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have a side hustle, with nine out of 10 “side hustlers” who are under 34 planning to transition said hustle into a full-time business. But juggling your side hustle with your day job can be tricky even for the most skilled multitasker. So here are some tips for managing multiple gigs without annoying your boss or colleagues

Compartmentalise while cross-fertilising
Try to view your day job as a source of inspiration and insights rather than an obstacle to your side-hustle. Your life will feel more coherent and less draining.

And perhaps counterintuitively, cross-fertilising inspiration can help you focus on each gig better.

Award-winning chef Reshmi Bennett, from Surrey, runs

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alongside her side hustle – publishing

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to inspire them to get creative in the kitchen. Having set up her bakery back in 2011, she’s juggled the two since the pandemic. “I started writing stories during the lockdowns thanks to the free time, and began selling them on

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“Straddling the two can be challenging, so I compartmentalise and schedule as much as humanly possible. When I’m at my ‘day job’, I’m fully focused on fulfilling the bakery’s orders and customer needs. I also try my best to utilise what I learn at the bakery – things like recipe testing for example – and apply it to my side hustle, which helps keep both going at a pace I can realistically manage.”

Work smarter
Emma Thomson, from Romford, Essex, worked as a medical secretary for the NHS while setting up her

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in her lunch breaks – juggling the two for six years before eventually going solo full-time. “I started the business by accident really,” she says. “I began making jewellery as a way to cope with anxiety and depression, and slowly people started to ask where they could buy it from.”

Jeweler Emma Thomson

Her best advice? “Compress your hours [in your main job] where possible. Rather than the standard eight-hour workday, I worked 10-hour days three days in a row in my NHS job. Although they were long days, it meant I had four full days to focus on my own business and I could take a day off if needed. This reduced fatigue, stress and tiredness immeasurably. Scheduling and automating social media content also helped a great deal as I didn’t have to physically be ‘on’ social media much at all.”

Strengthen your visual identity
Cultivate a strong visual identity for your work and your side hustle. Whether it’s an internal presentation to your team or a social media post to market your side hustle, flexing strong design skills will reinforce your personal brand. Enhanced design skills will be of benefit to your work and your side hustle – the skills you develop for one, raise your game for the other. This is where apps such as

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come in, making it intuitive and easier to produce great content.

Candice Mason, who has a women’s herbal tea business

Outsource where possible
Running a family-owned bus and coach company alongside a women’s herbal tea business could hardly call on more diverse skills. Which is where good organisation comes in, says Candice Mason, from Tring, Hertfordshire, whose side hustle is

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. “Because the two businesses are poles apart and operate in such different ways, I practically run my life on Trello, an online project board. Having things such as a simple calendar and booking system are gamechangers. So is outsourcing – bookkeeping, for example, is one task best left to someone else, allowing me time to focus on what’s important to drive business forward. I think the best thing is to quickly accept that you can’t do it all.”

Stick to the schedule
Leanne Alston, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, runs her own private

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while working full-time for the NHS as a manager in a mental health team. Scheduling has been her saviour, in all aspects of life. “I schedule each week and always stick to the plan, rather than the mood – you won’t always feel like working, exercising or even washing up, but you’ll always feel better for getting it done.

Psychotherapist Leanne Alston

“I write a weekly schedule where I mark out my nine-to-five role and sleep routine. Then I play with the time that’s left to make space for seeing private clients, sort out social media, exercise, see friends and catch up on personal jobs. Some days I need to be quite specific and others are more fluid because I’m less busy. I appreciate the visual of seeing my weekly plan written down because it removes the clutter from my mind. My other recommendation is to make sure wellbeing is a priority. Neither the nine-to-five or the side project will work successfully if wellbeing isn’t number one.”

Stay the same person
We’re all told to bring our “authentic selves” to work. Whether this is wise is debatable – it probably depends on whether the person you are at home is a suitable person to be at work. But one thing seems clear: if you have a third persona for your side hustle, it’s going to make life a lot more complicated. So trying to adopt the same persona for both your day job and side hustle can help simplify that situation – you’ll spend less energy code-switching and you’ll be more open to opportunities to cross-fertilise.

Charlotte Walsh, who started a reusable straw business

Try ‘time-chunking’
Engineer Charlotte Walsh, from North Yorkshire, started

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having struggled to find high-quality reusable drinking straws for her children. “I began the company in 2019 and now work on it full time, doing everything from dispatching orders to compliance with high street stockists. The days can be incredibly busy, so breaking each day’s tasks into chunks (“time-chunking”) helps me focus on the most urgent jobs and make significant progress each day, instead of getting distracted by incoming emails or newer requests.”

Be punctual
Lastly, don’t be last in. Be punctual at work, even if you’re burning the midnight oil. Because if your professionalism slips, you’ll probably end up losing more time trying to regain your credibility.

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