The Art of Balance: Full Time vs Freelance
From brainstorming ideas for content to editing social media posts and videos to showing up and giving your all (or at least 80%) to your 9-5, you can quickly get burnt out and overwhelmed trying to manage your time between your full time job and content creation. You can do both, however it will take serious dedication, discipline, and patience.
Here’s a quick guide on tips and tricks to manage your time:
Set up time to invest in yourself first
You are a person before your business, job, or any sort of creative endeavor. You must first pour into your physical, spiritual, and mental health in order to stay focused and keep your momentum. How will your creative juices flow for content ideas if you’re constantly stressed and not looking for healthy outlets to release this energy? You can pour into your mental health by reading, meditating, and spending time outside and/or with friends and family. It’s important to take a step back from work and experience the joys that life has to offer so you can continue to be inspired and motivated. Meditating helps to reduce stress and anxiety and improve concentration and attention span. Some ways to invest in your physical health include: walking, going to the gym, and yoga.
Develop a routine and schedule
Your 9-5 is automatically scheduled into your day, but you always want to make sure you’re calling back your time and power either before or after work. Figure out if you’re a morning or night person. Do you automatically wake up at the crack of dawn ready to take on the day? Great. Then before your 9-5, you can incorporate self care and content creation. You can host your morning sessions for brainstorming ideas, editing videos, or scheduling content. If you’re a night owl, you can do the same after work. You should also use either a physical or digital calendar to keep track of important dates such as when content needs to be scheduled or when certain projects are due. This will help you keep you on top of things and prevent you from missing critical deadlines.
Understand that not all days will be 100% days
Striving for perfection everyday will lead to major burnout, anxiety, and depression. Instead, you should do your best and leave the rest. Your best may look different day to day and that’s okay. Maybe instead of spending 5 hours after work editing content, you can only spend 20 minutes brainstorming and developing strategies. This might be due to low energy levels, motivation, or other factors affecting your overall mood and wellbeing. You need to remember 20% is better than 0%. Sometimes you might have off days and that’s all part of the process. Don’t beat yourself up, just come back stronger the next day.
Track your progress and experiment with trial and error
Learning what time management skills and techniques work best for you is accomplished by experimenting through trial and error. When you’re able to track your progress, you can see what works best. You can experiment with different times such as working strictly in the morning and evenings before and after work or dedicating time on the weekends to do content creation in bulk. You can also experiment by establishing designated days to do certain tasks i.e. Monday: brainstorming, Tuesday: writing/editing, Wednesday: meeting with other content creators, etc. You can track your progress in an excel sheet and document notes such as when you had the most energy or felt the most productive. By doing this, you can quickly notice patterns and implement the most optimal solutions for yourself.
Look for outside resources
There are hundreds of books, Youtube videos, and podcasts that specifically discuss productivity and how to manage your time between your full time 9-5 and side jobs. By exploring these different resources, you can gain a new perspective on how to manage your time and become more open minded to new ideas and new ways of thinking. Listening to how others have accomplished similar tasks can help you learn from their failures and successes. You can also join Facebook groups and in-person and virtual meetups for professionals also balancing 9-5s and content creation. In these groups you can share your successes, struggles, and find common ground to support and uplift each other.
Have fun and stay positive
Remember that you’re doing content creation because you love it and truly have a passion for it. Your 9-5 can solely be your full time day job that provides you an income to fund your lifestyle. Content creation is what makes you shine and brings you alive. It can be the vessel that provides joy, healing, a healthy outlet, a voice to speak to others, and an extra source of income. You should write down the reasons you love content creation and why you do it and keep it as a post it note whenever you feel down and uninspired. You should also remember to be patient and give yourself grace because balancing a full time job and content creation is no easy accomplishment.
I hope these tips help you find the balance between doing what you love and keeping the job that pays the bills and supports your lifestyle. With a little bit of patience, hard work, and motivation, you can become a pro at balancing different tasks and managing work life balance between two jobs. Remember to take a break when needed, stick to a realistic schedule, and have fun throughout the journey.
Always in your corner,
The Content Queens
