I woke up today and just did not feel like writing. If you’re a writer, run an online business, or build any kind of online content on a regular basis, you’ve probably had one of these days too where you’re having trouble staying motivated.
I’ve posted 1-2 articles every day on this blog since May 4, 2022. May the 4th was not with me.
Today could’ve been another day where I let myself slack off and simply skip my blog article.
Even though I’m not teaching you about a side hustle, marketing strategy or how to build a part of an online business today, I still think this lesson could be more beneficial to you than my normal posts.
Read this guide to learn how I stick to a work schedule and self-imposed deadlines being self-employed, while also avoiding burnout at the same time.
Self-Imposed Deadlines
Posting an article every day on this site is a self-imposed deadline. It’s a fairly new site, so I doubt anybody would even notice if I skipped a day.
Obviously, I did not skip my writing for today, since this article is here.
Why didn’t I take the day off?
When you have a job, you have a boss.
If you take a lazy day at your job, you may get fired by your boss.
I don’t have a boss. Nobody tells me to work and what to do when I’m working.
Being self-employed running online businesses, I am my own boss.
When a lot of people think about being their own boss, they think about all of the ways they would use their position to make their work life easier.
That’s not what the boss does though.
The boss makes the tough decisions when nobody else will. They make sure the job gets done.
I think this is a valuable lesson to pass along to my readers.
You are the boss with a side hustle or any kind of online business.
When you’re the only person in your company, being lazy means nothing gets done.
If you take that luxury and allow yourself to violate your own rules, where does it end?
After you make an excuse to do the wrong thing once, that same excuse could be valid every single day. What happens then?
Working at a job, you’ll disappoint and even anger your boss if you do not show up just because you’re not feeling motivated.
With an online business, just imagine who you may disappoint if you choose not to work when it’s expected. It may be a website visitor or an important customer – sometimes you never know until it’s too late.
Even if you’re a brand new business and won’t disappoint anyone, try to fake it in your mind.
Think about it this way. Let’s say you have started a new blog this year.
For the last two months you’ve written a new blog post every single day without missing one.
You have dreams of the day when your blog is finally popular.One day, you simply don’t feel like working and get tempted to take a day off.
Even if nobody is reading your site yet, imagine that you’re already popular. How would your audience react if you didn’t post one day?
If you would avoid that disappointment when you’re popular, then you need to avoid that same disappointment when you aren’t or you may never become popular.
After many years of creating online businesses and millions of words written, consistency is one of the biggest factors for success that I’ve seen.
There are probably other blogs about side hustles created this year. Many of them won’t exist next year or will go stagnant for a variety of reasons.
The writers, bloggers and other online business owners that push through the hard times to stay consistent will be the ones that reap the rewards in the future. Those that are not consistent, make excuses and ultimately give up will fail. You have to choose for yourself.
Set an Attainable Work Schedule
In a lot of ways, it’s important to take time off from work so you don’t get burnt out.
I rarely take an entire day off of work, but I do take a couple of hours at the end of every day for myself to do whatever I want.
That works for me. You need to figure out what works for you.
Finding the right balance between burning yourself out and still being productive can be tough though.
I’ve ended up with the wrong balance and paid for it.
Working too much to the point of exhaustion can cause more harm than good. Physically, mentally and financially.
There have been a couple of times over the past 13 years that I just stopped working for a couple of months because I burned myself out so bad. You have to be careful not to reach that point.
Make a set schedule for yourself to work, just like you would have at a job.
Try your best to stick to that schedule whenever possible. Don’t book too much of your time so you can still do other things in your life.
There is no single answer here that will work for everybody. Some will work a job and spend a couple hours a day on a side hustle at home in the evenings, while others can devote all of their efforts to an online business.
Just like a job, you could take time off for vacations, emergencies or even a sick day, but don’t make excuses to avoid work when you shouldn’t.
For my blog, my self-imposed deadline and attainable work schedule is one post every day.
There were a couple of months where I did two posts every day, but I found myself trying to take shortcuts to get those two done each day.
I have a lot of great info and experience to share with my readers, so I wanted to be able to take the time to create high-quality content. That can’t be rushed.
For that reason, I decreased to a single blog post each day, but they’re much longer and more useful than they used to be. I’m also taking the time to make custom graphics for each post now (one of my SEO secrets – try it).
Like mine did, your work schedule can also evolve over time to suit your needs as long as you are not making changes that will reduce the chances of success for your online business.
For the next 30 days, try to set a schedule for yourself for your side hustle or online business work. Don’t go overboard – make a schedule you can keep and then keep it for a month. If you’ve had trouble being consistent in the past, you’ll notice a big difference after you stay motivated for a full month and begin to build that as a habit.