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  • Writer's pictureLeonda Adeko, MBA

6 Strategies To Create The Free Time You Need To Turn Your Side Hustle Into A Real Business

Oh, how we all wish we had more hours in a day, but the truth is, the most successful people have the same 24 hours in a day just like the rest of us do. The only difference is what they choose to do with that time that makes all the difference.

Why is it that one person can accomplish a lot of things within their 24 hours than someone else? The secret is that they have a specific vision of where they want to see themselves in the future and then they create goals based off of that vision and it is that same vision that will continue to motivate them day in and day out to stick to the goals and timelines that they have set up for themselves.


Let’s face it, we all make time for things that truly matter to us. So, the key is to first figure out what our personal vision is and what truly matters to you then build your life around that and the goals and deadlines will happen. Refer back to the exercise where you created your personal vision statement.


Anyone who has known me for years will tell you that time management was not an area I was particularly good at. I was never on time for anything and just did things at my own pace. Needless to say, I needed to do some serious work in this area if I wanted people to take me seriously, and if I wanted to send the message that other people's time was important to me. I wanted to do better but didn’t really know where to start. I hated waking up in the morning and still do and I also wanted to be able to be in control of my own schedule. I realized that I needed to make some drastic changes. I came across some really good books in this space that helped change my life!


  • The 5 AM Miracle by Jeff Sanders

  • The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris

  • Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt


I will share some of my learned strategies with you and discuss what systems I put in place, with the strategies I learned from these books, to help me with managing my time. The first thing I understood was that I needed to create a fail-proof system and a consistent routine because if left up to me I wouldn’t get things done. When I embarked on this new time management path, I was working full-time, married with 3 kids and trying to build a business on the side, so I had a lot on my plate. I was tired of dropping the ball and not accomplishing my most important goals. Enough was enough! I wanted to have a better work ethic and be a lot more diligent with everything I was doing. My load was only going to increase as my side hustle grew and I didn’t want to sacrifice time with my family or spiritual activities. Follow these 5 strategies and you will be well on your way to creating the free time you need in order to plan your entrepreneurship journey at your own pace.


  1. Develop Your Personal Vision

  2. Separate Your Life & Goals Into Life Domains/Buckets

  3. Root Out Doubts and Limiting Beliefs

  4. Create S.M.A.R.T. Achievement Goals

  5. Create Habit Goals and Rituals

  6. Create Day Themes & A Schedule


DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL VISION


As I discussed previously, your personal vision should be your motivating factor for everything that you do. So, start first by creating your personal vision statement before moving on. The reason is you must determine what your WHY is before you ever start creating any type of goals. Michael Hyatt brings out in his book, Your Best Year Ever, that the “major reasons’ goals fail is that we’re not motivated enough to attain them. Without a compelling reason to persist, we lose interest, get distracted, or forget what we purposed to do.” So, the most powerful motivator is going to be your WHY.


Once you know what your WHY is you will be “unstoppable – even when the going gets tough and obstacles appear in your path. Great results don’t just happen. You don’t just drift to a destination you would have chosen. You have to be intentional and force yourself to get clear on what it is you truly want and why it is important and then pursue a plan of action that accomplishes your objective.” A personal vision statement will help you to find the clarity you need so you can create the life you want.


SEPARATE YOUR LIFE INTO LIFE DOMAINS/BUCKETS


Separating your life into different life domains or buckets helps you to see your time management in segments and makes goal setting less overwhelming. As women, we take on many different roles and therefore, we need a time management and goal setting strategy that will reflect all of these different roles we represent. Here are some domains to get you started:


  • Spiritual

  • Intellectual

  • Physical

  • Marital

  • Emotional

  • Vocational

  • Financial


You can’t have one domain without the other domain because they all impact each other. As an example, your physical health will impact your work and if you are stressed at work, it will impact your relationships at home. So, in order for you to experience progress in your life you need to give each domain the proper attention. I set up specific S.M.A.R.T. goals for each of my life domains. S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that means creating goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely.


ROOT OUT DOUBTS AND LIMITING BELIEFS


We discussed negative self talk in the previous section. However, Michael Hyatt gives some great advice in this area as it applies to goal setting. He states that you “must overcome any doubts you might harbor about experiencing the great year that you will plan because if you don’t believe you can reach your goals you will not reach them. If you shed your limiting beliefs imagine the breakthrough year you could create for your life? Limiting beliefs can keep us stuck but we can get unstuck by upgrading our belief system.” Try the following process if you are struggling with limiting beliefs:


Get a notebook or a pad of paper and draw a line down the middle of the page so you have 2 columns. Now use this six-step process to swap your limiting beliefs for liberating truths:


  • Recognize your limiting belief. Upgrading your thinking starts with awareness, so take a minute to reflect on what beliefs are holding you back.

  • Record the belief. In the left-hand column, jot down the belief. Writing it down helps you externalize it.

  • Review the belief. Evaluate how the belief is serving you. Is it empowering? Is it helping you reach your goals?

  • Reject/Reframe the belief. Sometimes you can simply contradict a limiting belief. Other times, you might need to build a case against it or look at your obstacles from a better angle.

  • Revise the belief. In the right-hand column write down a new liberating truth that corresponds to the old limiting belief.

  • Reorient yourself to the new belief. Commit to living as if it is true.


CREATE S.M.A.R.T. ACHIEVEMENT GOALS


I know that the mere act of writing down your goals is not going to make them miraculously happen and is not the end game. However, when you write down your goals it sets the foundation for success. As Michael puts it, “writing down your goals forces you to clarify what you want, helps you to overcome resistance, motivates you to take action, filters other opportunities, and lastly, it enables you to see and celebrate your progress. Research shows that the tougher and more specific the goal, the more likely we are to engage our focus, creativity, intellect and persistence. Vague goals don’t really inspire us. Specific goals create a channel for our problem-solving skills and effort. A vague goal would be “I want to start a business”.


Don’t forget to assign timelines to your S.M.A.R.T. goals. This could be a deadline, frequency, or a time trigger. For example, if I just had the goal to start a catering business it is missing a sense of urgency. It could happen over the next 5 years or the next 20 years. I could put it off and stop thinking about it altogether. But if I say, “research how to start a catering business every Thursday morning and complete this research by Jan 1, 2020” I’ve not only created a challenge but also focus. Deadlines demand attention and spur us into action.


However, beware of assigning December 31st for all your deadlines for your goals. Distant deadlines discourage action. You will think you have so much time and before you know it the end of the year is hear and you will wonder why you didn’t reach any of your goals – yet again! On the other hand, if you assign shorter deadlines to your goals it will help you concentrate your effort. The tighter the deadline the more productive you can be. Michael recommends creating 7 to 10 goals per year but only 2 or 3 major deadlines per quarter. Here is an example: I want to start a catering business by June 30, 2020. Although that is the overarching goal, I should breakdown the goal into 2 or 3 major deadlines for each quarter.


Quarter 1

  • Research how to start a catering business every Thursday morning at 9 AM and complete it by Feb 1, 2020

  • Write my one-page business plan by March 30, 2020


Quarter 2

  • Register my business as an LLC by April 14, 2020

  • Meet with logo designers to see new logo design concepts by May 25, 2020

So even though we have split out the deadlines in different quarters, they all go towards completing your ultimate goal of starting your own catering business by June 30, 2020.


Don’t forget to include goals from different domains of your life. Michael brings out that “people are accustomed to setting career-related goals but allow the other domains in their life to suffer. Don’t overthink it. Analysis paralysis is real. But you don’t need to see the end from the beginning or know exactly how a goal will play out. All you need is clarity on your next step.”


Remember your goals should be aligned to your personal vision statement or your WHY because this is going to be your key motivation. “When goal pursuit is tough, it’s easy to lose focus or discard the goal. If we don’t stay connected to our WHY, as one study put it, “the infusion of goals with energy may be distressingly temporary.” In other words, you will lose your way, if you lose your WHY.


CREATE HABIT GOALS AND RITUALS


Creating habit goals was a new concept for me that Michael teaches in his book and I thought it was genius! The goals we discussed previously were achievement goals. “Achievement goals represent one-time accomplishments. They have a clear, definable scope and time frame for completion. It is essential that achievement goals include deadlines.” But habit goals have the power to transform your life long-term. Habit goals involve regular, ongoing activity, such as daily Bible reading, running every morning before work or a monthly dinner date with your significant other. There is no deadline because you are not trying to accomplish just one thing. You are trying to maintain a practice. Instead there is a start date or start time in the day, which triggers initiation.


"You can use achievement goals and habit goals to design the year you want.” Differentiating between habit goals and achievement goals helped me to design my life in a way I had never thought of before. Using habit goals, I could begin to build a routine in my life that was sustainable for me long-term. For example, I have an achievement goal to maintain a specific healthy weight. So, I developed several habit goals to help me with this. Such as, I run every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday on an empty stomach and incorporate intermittent fasting on a daily basis. It is these 2 habit goals running 3 times per week and daily intermittent fasting that I consistently do each week that helps me to accomplish or sustain my achievement goal of maintaining a specific healthy weight.


The power of habit goals is you can begin to redefine your life. I suggest you use habit goals to help you with the most important areas of your life and do these things FIRST in your day. So, for example, if you want to grow in your relationship with God and your knowledge in the Bible then when you wake up in the morning to start your day you would start each morning doing personal bible reading and prayer.


Over the course of time, if you stick to this very fulfilling habit you will start to see your knowledge in the Bible increase and your love and appreciation for God and spiritual things shift. As another example, if you want to start your own business but feel like you just can’t find the time, this is where habit goals will come into play. If you have a full-time job, kids, spouse, etc. you may want to adjust your schedule so that you wake up 1 or 2 hours earlier and devote that time to working on business planning. Or if you are not a morning person, devote 1 or 2 hours at night when everyone is asleep and use that time for business planning.


CREATE DAY THEMES AND A SCHEDULE


It is time for you to “pull the trigger and take action and create actionable steps to achieve your goals. A lot of people spend their time dreaming, researching and planning and never start. Don’t get me wrong – detailed action plans are terrific. However, Michael cautions in his book to make sure that “all the detailed planning doesn’t become a fancy way to procrastinate. It’s a lot easier to plan than to take action.”


You know what it means to create a daily schedule but a new concept that Michael discusses is creating daily themes. Basically, instead of setting aside different hours in your day to do different tasks each hour, you would assign a theme to a specific day. I love this concept! For example, Sunday is my personal me time day theme where I do whatever I like for me, self-care, dinner with a friend, massage, whatever I like. Friday is the day that I assign to developing my business or creating new services or tools to help entrepreneurs. In addition, I assign my mornings devoted to spending time on self-development which includes spiritual activities and my physical health which usually includes going to the gym, using the sauna and eating a healthy green smoothie afterwards. Putting the tasks first that I deem to be most important my mind is now free to tackle the rest of the task for the day.


So, you get the point. You can design your days however you like if you get your mind into the concept of using day themes and morning or evening rituals. Once you have your specific day themes orchestrated, make the effort to create a daily schedule surrounding your day themes. I find doing it this way is a lot more fun and I am more motivated to get things done.


Your daily schedule should go beyond a to do list. You can start with a to-do list if you like but you need to assign each hour to a specific task. You have probably heard the saying “assign every dollar a job” so you will know where your money went? The same is true with your time. If you don’t have a daily schedule of when you will do what, your time will get away from you very quickly. Your daily schedule should coincide with your vision and your yearly and quarterly goals. Your schedule shouldn’t look like you are just doing busy work but it should truly reflect the tasks and habits you need to accomplish that aligns with your personal vision and goals.


If your ultimate goal is to start your own catering business by June 30, 2020, then your daily schedule should consist of specific tasks of what you plan to do to get you closer to achieving this goal. Break up your day first into the Daily Big 3, which are the most important items you want to accomplish for that day no matter what. This is a concept that I learned that I still use every day. Here is an example of the Daily Big 3 if you have a goal to start a catering business and again notice how I put it as the first task for the day. Doing it first will guarantee that nothing else will get in your way such as the kids, fixing dinner, or projects at work.


  • 5 AM - Wake up and research how to start a catering business

  • 6 AM - Find a business plan software to use when I am ready to write my one-page business plan

  • 7 AM - Research the type of catering equipment that I would need for my business and get some pricing

Now, if this was your Daily Big 3 and you have a full-time job to go to, or kids to wake up and get ready for school, you would have already accomplished several tasks that will get you closer to your goal of starting your own catering company by June 30, 2020. You can go about following any other items on your schedule confidently knowing you are even closer to realizing your dream of business ownership and still have time left to get ready for work and make breakfast for the family!


Follow this strategy for the weeks and months ahead and I guarantee you will make tremendous progress. Of course, this morning strategy could be a sacrifice for anyone who is not a morning person but welcome to the world of entrepreneurship, there will be sacrifices and deadlines you will need to make in the future – consider this as practice. Or you could take this same approach in the evenings instead.


Now would be a good time to go to my website at www.startupbusinesslaunchkit.com and get your personal copy of my No More Excuses Planner so you can begin to strategize and plan your year. Completing the exercises for this section will give you a glimpse of what is included in the planner. The planner follows a 90-day strategy which will help keep you focused and accomplishing goals in no time.


NEXT STEPS

  1. Download or purchase a hardcopy of my book & complete the exercises for step 2

  2. Read the next article - "Step 3 - 4 Simple Steps to Fund Your Business Startup Using This New Approach With Your Own Money"

  3. Get a copy of my No More Excuses Planner to help you set your new goals and monitor progress in your personal life and during your entrepreneurial journey

  4. Take my Side Hustle Masterclass where I not only walk you through all the 7 steps with videos and other exclusive content. You will also be setting up your own business using just 9 easy steps, and at the end, you will be ready to accept your first paying customer.

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