How to Avoid Side Hustle Burnout

Staying Fresh on the Job

Practice Positive Thinking

When it comes to building a successful and fulfilling side business, a positive frame of mind is critical. Practice daily affirmations as a start. Write down ten goals that you have for yourself or your business and say them aloud each morning. Afterwards, compose a list of things that you’re grateful for and take a moment to appreciate each.

Create a Morning or All-Day Ritual

Uncertainty is the biggest source of stress in the life of an entrepreneur. You can lessen that stress by creating rituals that are predictable constants in an otherwise mercurial world. Grab some coffee everyday at 10 A.M. or take a quick 15-minute stroll precisely at noon. When you know that something relaxing is going to happen on schedule, the surprises are less jarring.

Exercise and Keep Moving throughout the Day

Even if your side business involves a good deal of manual labor, it’s likely that you’re spending plenty of time at a desk wrangling with clerical work. Every hour, be sure to switch up your routine by standing and walking around to get the blood flowing. Do some stretching to work out different muscle groups and keep weights handy for some quick curls.

Eliminate the Stress from Your Business

Stress can come in all shapes and forms regardless of what you do. It could result from people or from certain aspects of your business. Every week, take 10 minutes to assess stress factors and devise solutions to said problems. If you go out of your way to spend less time stressing over preventable issues, you’ll be better able to focus on making money.

Teach Yourself One New Thing Each Day

Mental atrophy is the most detrimental threat to avoid as an entrepreneur. You can certainly keep your mind sharp through mental math exercises and brain teasers. However, those won’t really help your mind to grow. Picking up a new skill here and there like juggling or how to automate Excel spreadsheets in a particular fashion will be more fun or productive.

Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Segregate Your Personal & Professional Lives

If you’re going to run a successful business that doesn’t completely consume you as a person, keeping personal and business domains separate is huge. For those that work at home, leaving the stress of the business in the home office space is critical. Basically, don’t allow your personal and professional spheres to clash too much.

Set a Work Time Limit and Don’t Exceed It

There are only so many hours in a day to play around with. If you’ve got a full-time job that consumes 40 hours per week, limit your side-business work hours to 20 or 30 or so. Once you’ve breached that time limit, force yourself to take a break. Learn to make your time count if you don’t have enough of it.

Learn to Say “No” and Mean It

If you’re always saying “Yes” to every request or demand, you will quickly feel overwhelmed. You need to set boundaries as far as time, effort and resources go. Figure out when and where to say “No” and stick with it.

Make Up for the “Me Time” You’ve Lost

Like it or not, business time will always eat into personal time given enough time. While burning the midnight oil is laudable, it’s important to reward yourself for making sacrifices. If you lose an afternoon with family by fulfilling a special client request, make it up by booking a picnic with special friends or a day hiking your favorite peak.

Recharging Your Batteries off the Clock

Learn to Turn Your Brain Off

When you’ve finally gotten off of the clock with your side business, you need to allow yourself for mental rehabilitation. If you’re not a yoga fan, maybe it’s time to become one. When you leave work either figuratively or literally, you could try doing some cool-down exercises. Picture a babbling brook and so forth.

Always Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is the fuel that makes your side business fire burn brighter. You absolutely need to make your sleep a priority for the good of your business and your life. An hour or so before sleep, kick the caffeine and alcohol. Take a shower prior to sleep and light a candle in the bedroom. Get an alarm clock without that jarring mechanical or electronic sound that so many alarms feature.

Develop a New Side Hobby

Off time isn’t just about getting away from work. It’s a chance to remake yourself in whatever image you see fit. Perhaps taking up fly fishing would be a good way to incorporate leisure and off-work meditation. If you’ve never been a runner, now’s the time to join a marathon relay team. Whatever you feel like doing, make your new passion a way to renew yourself every week.

Devise a Schedule for Fun

At the end of the day, you’re working to live and not the other way around. As such, it’s important to make time for family and friends so that you can stay grounded and contented. Make your Sundays a no-work day where you host a barbecue or a kickball game. Spending time with loved ones is the reason why you’re working so hard, after all.

Maximizing Profits by Avoiding the Burn

A side business isn’t going to rocket you to financial independence if it crashes on the launchpad. Hopefully, using the preceding tips and tricks will help you to keep the burnout wolves at bay. By keeping yourself fresh, alive and in love with your side business idea, you’ll stay profitable and in good shape as far as your personal life goes.