Make A Morning Routine For Your Side Hustle That Truly Progresses Your Business
Side hustles can be powerful part-time businesses that influence your income for the better when built strategically. And no matter why you are building your side hustler, whether to grow it into full time, to secure multiple income streams or to flex your creative mind, side hustles are an amazing outlet. However, they do have one obvious difference. The amount of time spent on the business. Side hustlers are typically a part-time business. This means side hustlers running their business and having a full time 9-5 career, must have an organized schedule. This is where a morning routine for your side hustle can come into play.
If you’re a morning person, you have the most energy at the start of your day. It may be hard to get out of bed, but once you do, you’re ready to go! If this describes you and you have a side hustle, then consider bringing a large portion of your businesses workload to the morning. And expanding from there, consider creating your own morning side hustle routine to help you effectively move the needle within your business even further.
What is a morning routine, really?
I’m sure everyone has heard the term, “routine”. Even more so now that routines are gaining trendy popularity for their effectiveness. A routine is a sequence of actions that are regularly followed or repeated and usually have an overarching goal. A routine in reference to your business can be a series of smaller tasks or events that put your side hustle working hours into a unique framework.
For example, you may have a workout routine that you do 3-4 days a week no matter what. Your routine can last 1-2 hours and it may go something like this… Start with a 10-minute warm-up, weightlifting for 30 minutes, cardio for 20 minutes, specific body area weight lighting and toning for 10 minutes, stretch for 10 minutes. This workout routine allows you to go into the gym or your living room without questioning what to do or where to start. Therefore, you are more productive and efficient. You waste less time, if no time at all, and you are more likely to keep this routine consistent because of the lack of having to “figure it all out”.
You can apply this same principle to your business. And for a side hustler, this can be everything. Your side hustle routine can be a mix of business only, business and life and can even be designed to completely one spefic task each morning. Below are three of my favorite morning routines for a side hustler.
How a routine can help your busniess
According to Northwestern, people who do not have any type of routine can suffer from lack of sleep or quality of sleep, poor eating, stress, and ineffective use of time. And this is the same for your business. Having a routine for your business can prevent you from wasting time on low-priority tasks at the wrong time, stress, inconsistency and can even cause some side hustlers to hang up their hats.
Creating a strong morning routine for your side hustle is one way you can proactively give your business care and attention. Putting your standard work into a routine-like form can help ensure that your business receives consistent attention and can even bring a bit more joy to the job. This is especially good in the first couple of months of business and/or other times when sales and inquiries are a bit lower.
The Early Power Hour
The first side hustle morning routine that we will review is called The Early Power Hour. And if adopted by you and your business, you may call it whatever strikes your fancy! The Early Power Hour is for the early birds who perhaps work a typical 8-5 job. This routine calls for a side hustler to wake up very early and have one strong 60-minute (or longer) power hour before getting ready to go to work. This is a routine that I personally do inside my business, waking up a 4am to begin an intense working block.
This routine does require a bit of sacrifice on the front end. Finding ways to wake up earlier can be hard and it may take your mind and body a couple of weeks to get adjusted. And that’s okay. According to this article in Psychology Today, there isn’t a specific amount of time for a routine to transform into a habit. Even though a common misconception is 14 days. However, Psychology Today states that the key to turning a routine into a habit is consistency.
There are also some great perks for this routine! Depending on your household, waking up before needing to get ready for work can provide some true alone time. For me, this is a major perk. My husband is asleep and so are our pets. I have true alone time to focus on my tasks at hand, which isn’t always the case when everyone is up and awake. If you’re a morning person, then this routine can be even more of a benefit! Your brain is more awake and you may surprise yourself by the quality work and content you can produce early(er) in the morning.
HOW YOU CAN STRUCTURE THIS ROUTINE:
- Charge your phone in another room, rather than your bedroom
- Set an actual alarm clock, like this one, for the time you need to wake up
- Dedicate a block of time for your Early Bird Power Hour and make sure it fits with your schedule
- Dedicate a certain amount of days for this routine, I recommend 3-4 days a week
- Find some type of reward system if you’re able to hit all of your Early Bird Power Hours in one week
- Observe and tweak this routine to best fit you!
The Morning With Life & Business
The next side hustler morning routine is The Morning With Life & Business. This routine is tailored to fit the needs of both your business and your life! Cross the two categories as much as you can to produce an effective routine that gets more done for your life. You can do this through the power of habit stacking! For example, maybe you clock in for your side at 5am. Consider starting a load of laundry every morning as you clock in. Or take micro-breaks at your half-way mark to pack your lunch for that day.
This routine is perfect for side hustlers who struggle sitting down to work for long periods of time. Instead, you can leverage your restless nature with productivity! A good way to get started with this routine is to look at everything you may do in the morning and see how you can combine them with your side hustle. Think of things such as wiping down the counters, sending out emails, packing lunch, writing a blog post and more! Start simple with habit stacking and progress as you go along.
HOW YOU CAN STRUCTURE THIS ROUTINE:
- Pick a designated time to wake up and a designated time to start work for your side hustle
- Habit stack one life-type morning action with work (example: wipe down counters as your computer turns on)
- Set a timer, like this fun cube timer on Amazon, and complete one working block all the way through
- Complete another life-type task, either finishing the one you started or completing another
- Set your timer again and start another working block either for the same time or different
- Repeat this cycle for the amount of time you have allotted.
- Observe and tweak this routine to best fit you!
The Dedicated Mornings
The final morning routine for side hustlers that I know, love, and use myself is The Dedicated Mornings. And like the others, if this routine is for you, you can name it whatever is in your side hustling heart. The Dedicated Mornings is a routine designed to focus on only one task each early morning that you clock in for your business. And from that one task, you create an entire routine around accomplishing it effectively and repeating it.
For example, maybe your earlier mornings are for writing blog posts only. Your brain is more energized, your feel more alert, it’s quieter in the house so you know writing blog posts is perfect for this time. You would then create your entire Dedicated Morning routine around blogging. Perhaps you would wake up at 4:30am, start your coffee pot, drink water, read for 10 minutes to wake your literary brain up and turn on your computer to your blogging dashboard. You may already have your blogs scheduled out, outlined and ready to write!
The trick to this routine is to truly dedicate the morning to the task at hand. Avoid adding in other tasks and instead refine your one focused task, When you stray or get distracted, you aren’t able to effectively work the way you should.
HOW YOU CAN STRUCTURE THIS ROUTINE:
- Decide what time to get started each early morning
- Choose the one task that you will dedicate your morning routine to
- Find ways to refine your routine around this one task. Consider how to improve this through big things and small
- Avoid distractions, opening unrelated tabs or sidetracking
- Carve out a designed routine time block and dive straight in
- Observe and tweak this routine to best fit you!
Additional Morning Routine Tips For Side Hustlers
The best thing about morning routines is that you can truly customize them to fit everything you need. You can incorporate small things that only tailor your lifestyle, big or small! For example, a part of my daily routine is opening all the blinds in my office, ready my daily desk calendar and lighting a candle. I do this mini routine before sitting down at my desk to remind myself to take a breather before diving in.
ADDITIONAL TIPS:
- Prep your coffee pot the night before and wake up to a treat inside of a chore!
- Charge your phone in a different room and wake up to an alarm clock instead!
- Clean off your desk before starting work
- Set a timer for any working blocks. This timer is my favorite!
- Drink a full glass of water before diving into your morning coffee
- Plan what needs to get done the night before so you won’t need to think about it in the morning.
How to begin creating your side hustle morning routine
A morning routine can be a wonderful thing for your side hustle. And if you’re ready to start creating yours, keep these things in mind! First, if your side hustle morning routine will be earlier than your body is used to, ease into things a bit. Start by trying to get your feet on the floor once or twice earlier than usual. Next, always make sure that you have a game plan for what you’re working on during your morning routine. This will help you dive right in and you won’t have to use any brain power in the morning figuring it out.
Start creating a morning routine that fits perfectly with your lifestyle and your business. Download my FREE Side Hustler Routine Template & Planning Sheets to get started! A good morning routine can be like finding a new favorite pair of jeans. It can give back to you just as much as you give it, if not more! So what are you waiting for? Make the morning a powerful time for you and your business.
