Finding time after five
We all have ideas, passion projects or hobbies that we’d like to pursue outside our nine to five, but carving out the time to actually pursue our outside8 can be one of the biggest barriers.
As we get older, it almost seems impossible to find time outside our regular work week. We wake up, walk the dog, get the kids ready for school, do the drop off, head into work, do the pick up, get dinner ready, complete a few household tasks and maybe, just maybe, squeeze in an hour or two to decompress, spend time with loved ones, etc. Whatever variation your work week takes on, it can be challenging to find the time to pursue your outside8.
We all have ideas, passion projects or hobbies that we’d like to pursue outside our nine to five, but carving out the time to actually pursue our outside8 can be one of the biggest barriers.
While it can be extremely challenging to pursue an outside8, it is not impossible!
Here are four easy steps to get your own outside8 started.
1. Define your purpose
Whenever you start a new journey, it’s important to define where you hope this journey will take you. Are you pursuing your outside8 to earn additional income? Are you passionate about raising awareness for a particular cause or charity? Are you looking to pursue additional schooling to help you advance in your nine to five or change your nine to five altogether? Whatever your purpose, know what it is and stick by it.
This purpose will be the foundation to your outside8. It will help you when times get tough and will allow you to focus on why you’re doing what you’re doing when you want to give up. It will also give your outside8 vision, which will help you define your outside8 to others — becoming the key to your own story.
2. Set boundaries
When pursuing an outside8, it can be challenging to set boundaries for yourself. We keep doing and doing and doing, and often forget to set boundaries or schedules that allow us to keep pace with our busy lives. While it may be challenging to carve out the time in the beginning, it can be even more challenging to separate ourselves from our work as it grows. In our nine to five we set reminders, block off time, schedule meetings, etc. It’s important we do the same with our outside8.
By creating boundaries you’re able to not only carve out time to start your outside8 but also to maintain it. If your outside8 begins to take up all hours outside your nine to five, you may soon find yourself struggling to maintain the proper work life balance. If you find yourself at this juncture, it may be worth considering whether your outside8 has grown enough to allow you to convert it to your nine to five … or perhaps make other shifts that allow you to still find time for yourself. After all, you can’t drink from an empty cup.
3. Maximize the lost minutes of your day
How many of us sit on the bus, in a car, or even a train heading to and from work? Many of us lose hours of our day commuting to and from work, but we don’t have to lose these minutes. Maximizing these lost minutes, wherever you may find them in your day, can allow you to squeeze in to-dos that otherwise would creep into your time with family, that time before bed, or those weekends you hope to keep free.
Maximize your lost minutes by checking emails, making calls, drawing your next design, writing your next blog, whatever it may be. By reclaiming your lost minutes, you reclaim parts of your day that you might have otherwise thought lost.
4. Make lists
A large goal can seem that much easier to accomplish when broken down into lists. Just like we set up lists at work, or post that sticky reminder on our computer screen, we can do the same with our outside8. If you choose to pursue your outside8, pursue it with the same organization and planning that you would in your nine to five.
Creating lists of what you need to accomplish, and by when, helps to manage your own expectations of what you can and can not deliver. Understanding your own capacity is crucial when pursuing multiple projects or jobs. It also helps to sometimes visualize what’s on your plate. We often fall in the trap of adding more and more to our plate, but when we create lists of what is expected of ourselves, we suddenly can make realistic decisions that do not overburden us.
While these are only just a few steps to get you started with your own outside8, the stories in these blogs and all those shared using the #OutsideEight hashtag continue to teach us how to make the impossible, possible.
I think that nothing is impossible when you want to fulfill a dream. A lot of people will tell you that you can’t do it, that you don’t have what it takes, but if it is in your heart and you feel it, there is nothing that will stop you. It is like the sun — you can’t block it: it will shine regardless, if that is what you want. — Thalia
