The Real Test Of Your Side Hustle Begins Now
Life during the pandemic and back to normal
Life before the pandemic
As far as I remember, my regular day looked like waking up at 7 am, making a cup of tea before my ride to the office. At work, it was mostly coffee, followed by some exchange of emails, then off to client meetings and done. End of the workday. I was a regular at the gym last year before they shut it down in the wake of the pandemic.
Having a work profile of financial sales meant that most of my work hours were spent outdoors. It included an immense amount of time spent commuting. Time spent in the office primarily consisted of answering phone calls and chatting with my fellow office mates (who make my job more bearable).
During the lockdown
When the governments across the globe began declaring lockdowns, I thought this won’t work for more than 45 days, 2 months tops. It took at least a month before getting used to the concept of working from home. As everyone knows, it involved a lot of teething issues.
As most of my work hours were spent commuting for my meetings, there was a sudden void during my average workday as the pandemic struck. Guess what! It was conveniently met by Netflix. I devoured show after show till boredom hit me. Yeah, imagine getting bored by the tools that we use to get rid of boredom.
I turned all my focus towards reading books. Mostly non-fiction. I have been a reader for a decade but not the consistent one. I have bouts of reading phases in a year. And I thought I had sufficient time, so why not read?
Working on my side hustle
I had been toying with this idea of writing a novel someday. My first attempt was at the age of 22 (I am 30 now). I wrote 50 pages before abandoning my work. Neither a consistent reader nor a writer.
But I thought that let me give it a shot. I had been pondering about these characters in my head for a long time. And I began writing. Keeping a target of at least 800 words a day.
The only thought that kept me going was that I am going to write this story for myself. Forget getting it published, I just wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment. I wrote, and I wrote for the next 2 and a half months. Well, not at a stretch. Life happened to me in between. But I managed to finish the story. All that extra time saved for not having to commute came in handy. What happened after I completed the novel is a story for another day.
I thought I should write while I still can write. So, I even wrote a travelogue of my solo trip to Iran. Yeah, I went a few months right before the pandemic occurred. Lucky me, I wasn’t caught in the grave tourist situation of being stuck in another country.
I finished writing the travelogue and didn’t know what to do with it. So, I uploaded it on Wattpad for free. I recently took it off that platform and uploaded it as an ebook on Amazon Kindle.
Then life happened again, and I went back to writing after a long break. This time it was Medium. I thought of exploring this space. In case, if you do not know, I am not eligible for Medium Partner Program, so I don’t earn a penny for my articles. For good, or for worse. In all the writing that I have done in the past year, money was never a motivation.
Getting established as a writer is a long shot. At least, I acquired the skill of writing. In my assessment, I am a much better writer than I was before the lockdown was implemented. To be honest, I was not even a writer. But, after a year of writing (the most amount of writing that I have ever done), I believe that I have earned the right to call myself an author.
What will happen once things are back to normal?
After almost a year of being stuck in one place, things have started to open up. Recently, this question popped into my head. Am I going to work further on my writing?
I might not find sufficient time during the day once things are up and running. The real test of my hustle to become a writer has actually begun now. I will have to work on my writing skills even if I find it a tad bit hard to make time for the same.
I believe that a lot of us began our side hustles during the pandemic. Whether it is writing, baking, painting, making short videos. But, it might all come to a halt for some people. The temptation to get comfortable in our pre-pandemic lives stares us right in the face.
Let’s face it, most of us are going to get consumed with our jobs. Apart from that, we will be going out more than we used to. These are nothing but distractions that can kill all that we have gained in the last year. To put a similar amount of effort into our side hustle is going to be asking.
I intend to convert my writing from a side hustle into a habit. No matter how little I might write and spend time to promote my work. But something is always better than nothing. Even half an hour a day can make a tremendous difference. This is where the results start to compound, but most people tend to quit at this stage.
Final thoughts
I am not writing this piece for motivation but to make myself and all the others aware of the upcoming challenges we might face. If you are someone like me who found the ability to work on your passion during these depressed times, do not waste it. Do not throw all the things you are acquired into the trash.
If you have come this far, do not stop making the efforts.
