You sit down to work on your side hustle. You’ve got an hour. You know what you need to do. But you can’t make yourself start.
You scroll your phone. Make another cup of tea. Rearrange your desk. Tell yourself you’ll start after you check just one thing for work.
The hour’s gone. You’ve done nothing. Again.
You blame yourself. Not disciplined enough. Not motivated enough. Not serious enough about building this thing.
But what if that’s not the problem?
This was my life for months. Years maybe. Some evenings I might get something done. But mostly, nothing.
It was exhausting.
What I did next
I tried to fix it.
I set up accountability posts on my social channels. Every Monday, I’d post my goals for the week. By Wednesday, I’d be behind. By Friday, I’d avoid posting because I had nothing to show.
I tried different schedules. 4.30am (exhausting). Evenings (too tired). Weekends (life got in the way).
I read productivity books. Made lists. Set rewards.
Nothing worked.
Because when you think the problem is discipline, you try to force yourself harder. More structure. More pressure. More ‘shoulds.’
Which just makes you more exhausted.
My lightbulb moment
At work, I never had this problem. Deadlines? Met them. Projects? Delivered. Tasks? Done.
The difference wasn’t discipline. It was accountability.
At work, accountability was external. My boss set deadlines. My team expected updates. There were consequences if I didn’t deliver.
In my side hustle? Everything was internal. I was the only one who knew what I was working on. The only one who cared if I did it. The only consequence was disappointing myself.
And disappointing myself? Turns out that’s not enough.
Some of us are wired to need external accountability. It’s not a character flaw. It’s definitely not a lack of discipline. It’s just how we are built.
At work, this wiring serves us well. We’re reliable. Dependable. People count on us.
But for a side hustle? Where everything is an inner expectation? We’re fighting our own wiring every single day.
And that fight is what drains your energy.
Not because the work is hard. Because you’re fighting yourself.
Trying to force internal accountability when you’re wired for external is exhausting. You’re using willpower to override your natural wiring.
Willpower is finite. It’s no wonder you’re drained.
Create external accountability
You need external accountability, but you are your own boss. So, you have to create it yourself.
This was the hardest thing I had to figure out. But once I did, things started moving.
Here are two strategies that worked for me:
My scoreboard
Track what you plan to do and what you get done. Not to judge. To spot patterns.
The act of tracking creates a form of external accountability. The data exists outside your head. It holds you accountable in a way your memory can’t.
How I do it:
- I write down the task I plan to do. A
- Assign a time I’m going to do it.
- When I’m done, I write down what I got done.
- I note how I felt.
- Then I look for patterns
The result? Early mornings I’m productive but I also want to run. This breaks my focus. Now I plan to run at 9am. My brain knows this is happening, so I can focus on work and get a lot done before then.
On days with calls or meetings, I struggle to focus at my desk. Now I accept I won’t get much desk work done. I set myself a couple of tasks for the evening instead, and plan a few hours on a weekend morning. I’m working with my energy, not fighting it.
Tie deadlines to real consequences
At work, deadlines mattered because someone else cared. In your business, you need to create that same feeling.
Tie your deadlines to consequences that matter to you. Not ‘I should finish this’. ‘If I don’t finish this, X happens and I don’t want X to happen.’
You’re wired to meet outer expectations. When the consequence affects something outside yourself (your schedule, your commitments, your consistency), it becomes an outer expectation.
How I use this.
If I don’t write my blog on Friday, it won’t publish on Sunday.
I won’t have my social content for the week.
I won’t maintain consistency, which will dilute all the work I’ve done.
I’ll start next week playing catch up.
I know from experience my week won’t go well.
The consequence isn’t ‘disappointing myself’. It’s ‘losing momentum and making next week harder’. That’s real enough to matter to me.
Be real with yourself
I’ve gone from forcing myself every evening and getting nowhere, to working with my wiring and making real progress. My side hustle doesn’t drain me anymore. I stopped fighting myself.
You can do the same. Pick one strategy. Try it for a week. See what you discover about how you really work.
Then build your system around that. Not around what you think you should be able to do. And definitely not around what other people suggest you should be able to do.
Want help building a side hustle system that fits your life? Book a free discovery call and let’s talk.
