I procrastinated on my side hustle for years. Sound familiar?
Every week looked the same. On Mondays I was excited, the week was going to be different. Some Mondays I even made progress. Wednesday, frustration was creeping in. Thursday I’d given up and started looking to the weekend. Friday, I ‘needed’ a break. Saturday I occasionally got something done first thing. Sunday was a little better.
But nothing was happening that resembled business building. The progress was all in my head.
The more the pattern repeated, the more frustrated I got. I read all the self-development books. I loved Atomic Habits and completely bought into the concept of systems. The challenge was figuring out what the priorities were, how to build a system, how to tell the difference between income-generating activities and everything else.
I had all the theory. Too much theory. I was probably overwhelmed.
Making a change
But I wanted a change. I wanted to build something for myself. And, I knew what I wanted to build. The challenge was making it happen.
If you’re stuck in the world of side hustle procrastination while working a full-time job, wondering why you can’t start your side hustle or make progress, this pattern probably feels familiar.
Then I had the opportunity to go all-in and turn my side hustle into a full-time business. Yes, this was lucky. No, I wasn’t remotely ready. And definitely no, I had no proof it was going to work.
I had no safety net, but I had to figure it out. There was no choice anymore.
This wasn’t a magic wand. I didn’t suddenly go from procrastinating side hustler to business owner getting everything right. Far from it. I’m guessing if you are all-in with your business, you’ve discovered that all-in isn’t a magic wand either.
These are the 7 biggest lessons I learned in my first 3 months:
1. Clarity isn’t just a nice word
I had lots of ideas. I thought that was enough and meant I knew exactly what I wanted to build. Then I started building and I froze.
I discovered that big picture dreaming is fun, but execution requires specifics. So, I stopped asking myself, ‘what’s my end goal?’ and started asking ‘what’s needed now?’
This made me look at my immediate situation. I needed income. How much? By when? What were my options for generating it?
I set my goal as number of clients. Wrong. It should have been income. Income forced me to think creatively about money sources. But focusing on client numbers limited me to one revenue stream.
Your goal metric matters. Choose one that creates options, not one that narrows them.
2. Ditch the willpower
I often struggle with ‘willpower’ as a concept. And knowing it gets depleted over the day didn’t fundamentally change anything. So, I built systems instead.
Start of work block system: I sit down at my desk, put my headphones on, and the next task is already set up on my screen. I know exactly what I need to do. No thinking required.
End of work block system: I finish each session by setting up the next one. Document open, next step written on a card on my laptop. When I sit down again, I start immediately.
The more decisions you can remove by creating a series of tasks, the better your day goes. If you believe in willpower, think of it as removing decisions so you protect your energy, which means your willpower lasts longer.
Systems aren’t about motivation. They’re about removing the opportunity to make decisions.
3. My definition of accountability
Accountability looks different for different people. Public announcements work for some. Accountability buddies work for others. Neither worked for me. Side hustle accountability looks different when you don’t have a boss or team checking in on you. Deadlines tied to something I need worked better for me.
I’m developing a new product, and I have an event coming up where I’ll have access to experts. My deadline is to outline the product before the event so I can tap into their expertise. Real deadline, real consequence if I don’t meet it.
Free trials for software also work. If I need to decide whether to pay for a tool, I have to use it properly during the trial. That creates genuine urgency.
Don’t just opt for the ‘obvious’ accountability solution. Test what keeps you moving and ditch what doesn’t.
4. Energy mapping
Understanding and working with my energy patterns has been a revelation for me. It’s the reason I built my Energy Blueprint Method.
I pay attention through the day to spot when I work best, when my mind is clearest, when I’m able to get different types of work done.
When I was in full-time employment, I loved a good admin day on a Friday. I’d put tasks off all week and then blitz through them. Pre-Covid, I managed to negotiate a work-from-home day each week. This let me plan tasks requiring uninterrupted thinking for my home day. Having no distractions was ideal for some tasks, but not for others.
I know I work best early morning and early evening, so I build my day around those times and put admin and tasks requiring less brain power into the other times.
I get up early, but this requires me to go to bed earlier. I’ve had to work hard on this and some days I still don’t get it right. My partner is more of a night owl. This is perfect in the morning because I’m the only one up, but it makes going to bed early a lot harder.
Track your energy for one week. Note when you feel sharp versus when you’re sluggish. Then build your day around those patterns, not around arbitrary ‘9-5’ schedules. For side hustlers, this might mean working on your business early morning before your job or protecting evening hours when you’re most focused. You need to know when you have energy left to give.
5. Self-employment is fundamentally different
A couple of weeks after going self-employed, I was frustrated. I couldn’t understand where my time was going or why I wasn’t getting as much done as I needed.
Then I worked with a client experiencing the same struggle. They realised that processes they used at work no longer featured in their day. No deadlines, meetings, or actions that needed to be done. It was all on them to figure out.
That’s when I realised I’d skipped some steps and was creating the day I thought I wanted rather than the day my business needed.
I borrowed the structure from employment. I set alarms on my phone, created meetings with myself, and set up a work diary. Whatever created structure and helped me feel like I was ‘at work’.
Take the processes and tools that work well for you in employment and adapt them for your business. You don’t have to reinvent everything.
6. Progress isn’t subjective
It’s easy to beat yourself up, tell yourself you aren’t working hard enough, things aren’t going well. Or maybe you think they’re going better than they are. Whatever. Objective measures are the only way to get over this mental hurdle.
Tracking is perfect for me. My 1800-day (and counting) run streak works because I track my progress. But it doesn’t translate exactly into my work life. There aren’t many useful metrics that can be tracked every day.
My current focus is on being more visible. Talking to more people about what I do. I have all my networking events in my diary, and I question any events that take me to more than two in any week.
I’ve started tracking my social content, something I’d been putting off. The results of my analysis suggest there are ways I can be more effective and efficient in my approach. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t taken the time to dig into it. This revealed patterns that weren’t immediately obvious. I had a sense that my social channels weren’t performing very well, but I had no idea why. Now I have a series of tests which will help me understand and make the changes I need.
Start with one metric that matters to your current goal. For me, it’s networking events and social content. Track it for a month, analyse it, then adjust.
7. Side hustlers are business owners
The thing that surprised me the most was that side hustle challenges look suspiciously like full-time business owner challenges. But, it’s not the work that’s different, it’s the structure you build to get the work done.
When you are in employment, systems exist around you. Deadlines, meetings, accountability. When you’re building your own thing, you need to create all of that yourself.
You don’t need to go all-in to figure this out. That’s the whole point. I learned this the hard way because I had no choice. You don’t have to.
You can build these systems in your side hustle while keeping your employment safety net.
Look at what works in your current or last job and adapt it for your side hustle or business. The structure exists, you just need to recreate it for yourself.
What now?
These are the systems that helped me stop procrastinating on my side hustle and finally make it work.
Building a side hustle while working full-time is hard. But stopping the procrastination cycle isn’t about working harder or finding more motivation tips.
It’s about building the right systems.
Want help building your system without taking the leap? Book a call and let’s work through what’s holding you back.
