I was talking to one of my clients two days ago in our weekly coaching session where I’m helping him increase his income online (BTW, if you’re interested, book a FREE discovery call here), and he asked me:
“Alex, how do you balance it all? How do you balance a busy life with your career as an engineer, a father, husband, and online business owner?
How do you do it all!”
It made me chuckle.
I replied with “I honestly don’t know. I wonder about that every day as well.”
And it’s true.
My wife asks me the same thing. She always tells me that I have many things going on, and somehow, I still have time to spend with her, my daughter, my mom, siblings, friends, work out, and my online business.
The truth is many professionals struggle to find the time and energy to dedicate to their side projects without burning out.
Let’s be honest, how can this NOT be a problem? Your career needs time. Your family needs time. Your home needs time. Your friends need time.
YOU need time.
And what happens to your business?
If you’re not careful and don’t know how to find the balance and allocate your resources, you can end up making no progress and find yourself in the same situation years from now.
So I thought about this more deeply, and decided to make my first newsletter, and start sharing these strategies with you.
The following strategies will help you manage your time and actions more efficiently, so you can make more money, help more people, grow your business, spend time with your family, and overall, live a meaningful and fulfilling life.
WHAT MOST PEOPLE DO
When it comes to solving this problem of balancing career, family, and your online business, there are ways I’ve found to be helpful and there are others that I’ve found don’t work too well.
Let’s start out with what most people do (you might be doing this):
They “multitask”
I know what you’re thinking: “but I’m good at it. It saves me time!” No this doesn’t.
Why this doesn’t work: There are many studies that suggest multitasking doesn’t exist, and what your brain is doing is rapidly switching its focus from one task to another. This leads to inefficiency, wasting time, and subpar results, and to put it bluntly, shitty work. Not to mention, I try to do this for 20 minutes, and my brain starts hurting.
They sacrifice sleep
Been there. Done that. I used to think that by sleeping less, I was getting ahead. However, I noticed a decrease in my performance and concentration in all areas of my life, including work.
Not only was I less productive, easily distracted, I was also impatient, easily frustrated, and when you have a kid, you need to be performing at a high level all day everyday.
You need to be locked in.
Why it doesn’t work: Sleeping less only leads to subpar performance in all areas of your life. And while I do agree that there are some seasons in life where little sleep is inevitable (for example, when your kids are born lol), it’s not a long-term strategy for success. In fact, studies have found that lack of sleep leads to brain fog, decrease in ability to learn, and yes, even your mood.
They work ALL weekend
I know this is going to be controversial, and you know what? Whatever.
But I’ve noticed that many people take pride in working 24/7. In being ON eight days a week, 25 hours a day. They eat, sleep, dream, and drink work, business.
And sure, if it works for them, it’s good.
But that’s not me. I’d much rather work a little less, make a bit less progress on my business, and spend quality time with my little daughter, with my wife, with my family, and friends.
Why this doesn’t work: I believe living a meaningful life means spending quality time with your loved ones and making memories that last a lifetime. Especially when you have kids; it’s important to be there for them, and more important when they are little.
Taking your business seriously doesn’t mean neglecting your family and never spending time with them. What’s the point of working so hard you never get to enjoy it with the people you love? Why work so far? When will you enjoy the fruits of your labor? This can even lead to negative feelings like resentment, frustration, and envy when you see other people enjoying themselves and you working all the time.
They ignore both their physical and mental health
There have been periods in my life where I ignored my physical and mental health. Usually, this manifests itself in my mood and the way I feel:
Sluggish, more stressed, forgetful, easily irritable, weight gain, and overall, lethargic, and low energy.
The funny thing is that many people who take care of themselves and make time to distress think they’re being selfish. And the way I see it, it’s far, very far, from the truth.
Why this doesn’t work: Doing this long enough will take you to the hospital, or even worse, the grave. That’s the cold hard truth. Not only are ignoring your physical and mental health affecting you, it’s also impacting your family.
If you want to help someone, helping yourself is the first step. Taking care of yourself is not selfish; it’s self’LESS.
That’s the mentality we need to have as parents, providers, and responsible adults.
HOW I’VE LEARNED TO BALANCE CAREER, FAMILY, AND MY ONLINE BUSINESS
The first thing I’ll say is this:
There are times to GRIND!
There are times when things WILL be imbalanced.
Especially when you are on your game, you can’t wait to keep working, and helping people, and getting customers, and clients, and interacting.
I get it. Sometimes, we can’t help but to be a bit imbalanced. This is how I was able to grow my online business to five figures in four months.
However, I figured out pretty early in my journey that if I want to make this a long game, and make it sustainable, we must learn to balance things out and figure out what works, so we can become more efficient.
Here are seven keys I’ve learned that have helped me balance my career, family, and online business.
1. Make time (sounds silly, but it’s true)
The truth is you make time for what’s important to you. As a father with a demanding career, and who loves to spend time with his family, I’ve found a few pockets of time where I can work on my business.
The first pocket is right before work (around 45 minutes), and the second one is after they go to bed (around two hours).
That’s why I like to call myself a 10PM entrepreneur, because that’s where I do most of my work; whether it’s YouTube, or writing, or posting on social media (I’m writing this at 11:13 PM) Here’s what I suggest for you:
- Identify times in your schedule where you can work on your business. Even if it requires you to wake up a bit earlier, or go to bed just a little later.
- Allocate specific time slots for work, side hustle, and personal activities. Focus on high-impact tasks first to maximize productivity.
- When it comes to taking care of myself, I do this from home, right after work. When I get off work, I invested in some free weights I can take advantage of right after work, or sometimes I go for a walk (specially in the summer).
2. Focus on Efficient Work Habits:
Make a list of what you need to accomplish: Focus on one or two things you need to accomplish everyday. Make a list either the night before, or the morning of the same day. Personally, I like to keep a list on Google’s Keep application. I love it. It helps me stay organized and keep track of what I need to accomplish.
Using Google calendar to schedule your daily tasks is also helpful. Remember, when you have calendar activities scheduled, don’t use your calendar as a tyrant. Use it more as a guide.
Use Artificial intelligence to save time. If you have questions, or need to organize your business, or need an assistant to make posts, or create content, or come up with content ideas, use artificial intelligence. Even family planning for your budget.
My favorites are ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Claude.ai
3. Communication with my wife:
Depending on what I have going on, sometimes I spend one or two hours on a Saturday working on my business.
This is when I communicate with my wife and let her know that I need some time to work on my stuff, and when I do get that time, I fully focus on it.
No distractions and lock in fully. Talk to your spouse, communicate, and let them know time for yourself here is important.
4. Taking advantage of little windows throughout the day:
I have one daughter now, and when she does take a nap, I try to take advantage of that time and work on my business, or work out, and even clean up around the house. This is a 60-90 minute window where I can fully engage in my work and get things done. Little windows add up!
5. Delegate and Outsource:
Delegate tasks that can be done by others to free up your time. If you are making YouTube videos, look into outsourcing editors. I’ve seen creators and entrepreneurs who leverage labor overseas.
Personally, I used to hire editors for my YouTube videos. You could hire an assistant, a researcher, an editor, writer, anything.
The website I use to hire labor is Upwork.com. There is also Fiver.
6. Set Boundaries:
When balancing family, career, and your business, having a clear work schedule will help you plan ahead and know what to expect. Stick to them as much as you can.
There have been situations where I have to work until midnight, and to me, that’s OK. I just make sure I go right back to schedule the next day, and move on.
To set boundaries, you must be assertive and communicate with your team, and of course, be efficient at work.
7. Set goals and identify where you’re going:
There is nothing worse than NOT knowing where you’re going, or what you’re trying to accomplish. This will lead you to burn-out, frustration, and lack of progress.
When you set goals, you know what you’re working towards, and all of your actions will be in alignment.
That’s it for today. Balancing a full-time job and a side hustle is challenging but entirely possible with the right strategies and mindset.
Thank you for reading, and I will talk to you next time.
BTW, This letter is much longer than I anticipated. I’m sure it will evolve and will get better, as I get better at writing and articulating my thoughts.
If you have any questions or suggestions for content, to help you monetize your skills, teaching what you know, and increasing your income online while balancing your career, and family duties, let me know!
Alex