How to Make Progress on a Side Hustle After a Long Day

For a lot of new designers, design is a second career being learned and practiced during the evenings and breaks from their regular day job. 

For myself, Frocks in Stock is a fulfilling hobby I work on in the evenings after a full day of work and taking care of my family. 

At that point in the day, we don’t have much time. We don’t have much brain power left. So if we have goals to accomplish in our evening hours, we need to be thoughtful and strategic in order to get them done. 

Here are some of the tips I’ve figured out over the years to help me be productive in the evenings: 

Plan Ahead

Create To-Do Lists

Create a weekly to-do list with very specific actions for each day. 

Break down your big goals into smaller steps and assign them each a day. That way, when you’re tired at the end of the day you don’t have to think and decide what to do now or work on something huge - you can just jump right into something of manageable size. 

Don’t overload your to-do list - keep the amount of tasks reasonable and realistic. You can keep a side list of extras you’d like to get done as well for in case you finish early and have extra time, but putting too much on your main list can lead you feeling overwhelmed or perpetually behind. 

This is my favorite weekly planner. I keep a moderate amount of items in each day’s box and then put extras on the list to the right as optional activities for if I have extra time. If I feel like I don’t have the energy, then I ignore those and spend the extra time relaxing and recharging. 

Prioritize

Figure out your order of priorities between your day job, your family and personal life, and your side hustle. Some weeks higher priorities will simply have to take over. Give yourself grace knowing that you’re making the right choice even if it means your other tasks will have to wait a little longer until you reach them.

Think Before Doing

Plenty of tasks require thinking before you get into the execution part (brainstorming ideas, working through challenges, etc.). Try to do the thinking during the day while you’re working on other tasks that don’t require your full attention. That way, when you finally have free time, you can get started right away. 

Focus

Curate Your Tasks, Automate the Rest

Your time is precious. While it can be frustrating to not have a lot of time to get everything done that you’d like to, having limited time is also a great source of focus. Focus on just the items that will bring you the greatest return or impact. 

Cut out any tasks that aren’t essential. 

Set up automations, templates, and batching to streamline your processes and cut down on the time it takes to do repetitive items. 

Remove Physical and Mental Distractions

Cut out the distractions - not just outside noise but also the inside noise, the things that take up mental space. Take a piece of paper (or Doc or project management software) and write down everything on your mind, all the things you don’t want to forget, the meetings you need to schedule, people you need to follow up with, etc. 

This will help you free up your mind to relax and focus on the task at hand - both your work and when it’s time to rest. 

Listen to Your Energy 

Do the Right Task for Your Energy

Follow your body’s energy levels - work when it makes the most sense for you. That may be early in the morning or perhaps late in the evening. If you spend just 10 minutes when you have a lot of energy you’ll get much more done then if you try to force yourself to work for an hour when you’re exhausted and can’t focus. 

Save high-thought work for times of the day/week when you know you have more mental energy, schedule mindless rote work for when you know you’re usually too tired to think. If you have a sudden burst of energy, skip ahead to the thought work. Go with your flow. 

Take breaks  

If you’re feeling too exhausted to work or think for a while, it probably means you need to take a break and get some extra rest. Go to bed early, do something relaxing that you enjoy such as reading or painting or going out with friends. Take some time for yourself to recharge. The work will still be there when you get back.

Stay Motivated 

Have Your End Goal In Mind 

Understand your motivations and long-term goals. What are you doing this for - why are you giving up on hobbies and social time? Clarifying this and keeping that future state in mind will help you keep focus and be productive even when you don’t want to, because you remember that goal you want to reach. 

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

Don’t look at others’ progress. You don’t know their stories, what their lives are like, how much time they have to dedicate to similar tasks that you’re tackling. You’re on your own journey and timeline, not theirs, and you’ll reach your goals when you’re meant to. It’s not a race. 

Join Groups or 1:1 Coaching

Having a community of others or a personal cheerleader pushing you forward can be a huge help in keeping up your energy and motivation to work even when tired. 

Personally I’m part of CreativeTal and DesignAlly and sign up for Michelle Mozes’ workshops and coaching programs whenever I can afford them. Listening to her speak and knowing that I’m being held accountable gives me a massive surge in energy and motivation. I find that I accomplish 10x more (and happily!) when it feels like someone is relying on me and believing in me than when it’s just me working in a dark bedroom all alone in a vacuum. 

Celebrate Your Accomplishments 

Round up your wins at the end of each quarter or year to see how far you’ve come! It’ll help you feel a sense of progress and accomplishment, seeing that all of your hard work has paid off, and give you a goal to work towards in the next time period. 

Reward Yourself for Your Hard Work

Set up rewards for yourself when you complete specifically difficult tasks or large goals. Reward your hard work, not the results - those aren’t up to you anyway 😉

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Overall, try to stay organized, keep your goals in mind, and listen to your body.

Your journey is your own. 

And even if you have less time to devote to this side hustle than others do, you’ll be surprised by how much you can accomplish with just a half hour of work each night over an entire year!

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