How to Start a Side Hustle in Hong Kong Without Being Overwhelmed

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While some of you are still digesting that New Year and Christmas feasts, or recuperating from that celebration hangover, others are already out there grinding and making things happen. Of course, no need for guilt as everyone has their own pace. But sometimes when you see people with day jobs and the side gigs, it’s hard to not wonder, how do these people manage to find the time to do so much with the same 24 hours?

Or maybe you are the person with the two jobs going on, or a parent with a job; but you suspect you are slowly slipping into insanity trying to manage your time. Maybe these few tips will help keep you sane and motivated:

Prioritise with 4 Quadrants

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Don’t just do the urgent things first. Do the important ones first. Split your to-do list into buckets (of course, you need to keep a to-do list first), before deciding which to do. The 4 Quadrants method made famous by the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People written by Steven Convey is a great way to prioritise.

The gist is that there are 4 different types of tasks, split according to their Urgency + Importance. Quadrant 1 tasks are both Urgent and Important, obviously, do them first. The devil is the things that are Quadrants 3 and 4, Urgent but Not Important and Not Urgent and Not Important. Quadrant 3 would be things that have a deadline but do not affect the quality of your final product. For example, cleaning the floor of your painting studio. You might have promised yourself to do it this Friday latest, but is it really more important than posting your latest product profile online? Which impacts your production more? Maybe you can find someone to help you clean the studio, or just layer the floor was disposable covers each time, and completely eliminate this task altogether.

Do away with Quadrants 3 and 4, and you will find that you have suddenly had so much more time to keep the focus on Quadrants 1 and 2. Don’t sweat the small stuff, just the core stuff. We call it Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the startup world, it works.

"7 habits decision-making matrix.png" by Davidjcmorris is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 [1]

Discipline - Remind yourself

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No matter how well you prioritise and organise your schedule, execution is still needed to make things happen. There is a post-it on my desk with my favorite quote to mentally kick myself when I feel lazy - “Are your habits today on par with the dreams you have tomorrow?”. Always gets me going. Find something that will motivate (or guilt-trip) you for those low times when you are lethargic but need to get Quadrant 1 things done. We have more willpower than we think, literally - Contrary to previous research, willpower is not a finite resource.

Another way to make work easier is the Pomodoro technique, which is a very popular way to stay sustainably efficient. Basically, you work in 25 minutes with short breaks in between, which is the maximal amount of time most people can stay in high-level focus. It is very popular and quite effective, google it if you haven’t heard of it before, they are more convincing than I can ever be.

Have an accountability partner

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You are perfect. You are enough. We hear that a lot, but secretly to yourself, do you slack off sometimes? Do you forget things you promised to do? You don’t have to tell me the answer, but no one is an island, we all benefit from having a buddy or a mentor. If you can find someone doing the same thing as you, working and creating things together will become not just more efficient but also more enjoyable. Even just finding someone you can rely on for honest feedback and to keep you accountable will make it much more motivating than going it alone. You can be perfect in pairs, too!

Take a break

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Finally, always remember to “treat yo’ self”. Sometimes we get so caught up in work that we just want to check item after item on the list, and we forget to take a break, then we end up feeling stressed and burnt out. Juggling so many responsibilities is not an easy task, at the end of the day remind yourself that you are amazing! Allow yourself a night out, a bubble bath, a retreat, that overdue coffee with your friends, or a massage session. Those are just a few ideas to get the ball rolling, I’m sure you will come up with many more.

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Reference:

[1] McKay; Brett; Kate (October 23, 2013). "The Eisenhower Decision Matrix: How to Distinguish Between Urgent and Important Tasks and Make Real Progress in Your Life". A Man's Life, Personal Development.

Source: Wikipedia

January 2020