Are you dreaming of turning your blog into a full-time job? Before you take the leap, check out all the reasons why keeping your blog as a side hustle can make you more productive.
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It forces you to prioritize.
When you have a job or major commitment outside of blogging, you have less time to work on your blog. When you have less time to work on your blog, you have to identify what’s really going to help you grow.
You don’t have extra time to waste reading article after article about how to choose the perfect blog name or reading every tweet in your Twitter feed. You might feel like you’re missing out, but you’re not! (Really, I promise!).
When you have limited time to work on your blog, you have to make decisions and take action.
If your blog is just one of your many responsibilities, you’ll soon learn to cut out time-wasting tasks and focus on what’s really important.
Talk about a productivity boost! As long as you stay focused on your goals, you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done.
It can reduce your stress.
I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out…
When your blog is your sole focus, it’s easy to lose motivation when you hit a bump in the road. You’re pouring ALL of your energy into this one project, so it’s hard not to feel defeated when things go wrong. (And they will go wrong, trust me…)
One of the best things about having a job/school/family responsibilities AND a blog is that you have two outlets for your energy.
When your blog traffic isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like, you can give yourself a pat on the back for how well things are going at your day job or with your family.
When you get frustrated after a morning spent with your rowdy toddler, you know your blog will be a nice outlet for later in the day.
So how does reduced stress make you more productive?
Here’s what the research says:
When you’re less stressed, you’re more engaged in your work.
When you’re less stressed, you’re more likely to “show up” both mentally and physically.
When you’re less stressed, you concentrate better, enjoy your work more, and tend to be more organized.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but having two major commitments, like a blog and a day job, can help you reduce stress. In turn, it will be easier to get more done. If you stop comparing yourself to full-time bloggers and focus on the activities that will have the biggest return on investment for your blog, you can handle the dual responsibilities!
It gives you a financial cushion.
Most of us, myself included, want to make money as quickly as possible. The problem with this short-term outlook is that it’s rarely possible or sustainable.
Sure, the Internet abounds with stories from entrepreneurs who made six figures in their first year of blogging. But keep in mind that you rarely hear ALL the details, or the backstory, or the end of the story, or the stories of the 99% who don’t invest thousands of dollars and hours in their new businesses.
Focusing on get-rich-quick schemes and sleazy sales practices is extremely unproductive. You could be using those months and years to build a sustainable business and income, instead of making a little bit of money, once, from visitors who will never come back to your website.
If your blog is a side hustle while you work full or part-time, you have a great financial cushion. You don’t need to make money immediately, which gives you the freedom to focus on long-term growth and long-term productivity.
Instead of becoming a sleazy sales machine, which will turn off your readers, you can focus on growing your audience, writing great content, and marketing. This sets you up for a more successful business in the long run because you have a solid, customer-focused foundation in place.
Plus, having a day job gives you extra money to invest in your blog. It’s extremely rare for a business to succeed if the business owner is not willing to invest. Budget some of your paycheck to pay for a domain name, self-hosting, or a more professional blog design.
Investing a little bit of cash to make your blog look more professional will help you grow more quickly and establish your authority.
Your takeaway
Whether your blog is your full-time job or a side gig, you’ll be most productive if you prioritize important tasks, give yourself a second outlet for your energy and frustrations, and focus on long-term success over get-rich-quick schemes.
Need help figuring out how to prioritize your blogging tasks? Grab my free guide on the 5 blogging tasks you should focus on, and why they will help you grow your business.
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