Your side hustle should be giving you energy not depleting it
I'm pretty active here on IH as well as on other platforms like Hacker News, Reddit etc. I believe, the more I learn from others the higher the chance I'm giving myself for success.
One thing I see a lot is people asking how to manage energy when you have a full-time day job and a side hustle. What follows is tips on time management, looking after mental health etc. and while I don't disagree with this advice, I've recently had a lightbulb moment, and it's this . . .
Your side hustle should be giving you energy not depleting it.
I've had so many side hustles this past year, and they have all exhausted me. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open when working on them. I'm not getting enough sleep etc. etc. However, I've been working on my latest hustle - a podcast (won't link to it as this isn't that kind of post), and I'm so energized. It's not shiny object syndrome where I think the effect will wear off, as I have experienced this before, but it's an energy that comes from the work I do, the passion I have for it, and the people I talk to.
Not to say I haven't been passionate about my previous hustles, but this one seems to be:
passion + a specific type of task(s) + speaking/collaborating with others.
All of my past hustles have been solo projects and this is what drained me. But I couldn't have known that without my current hustle to compare it to.
So my advice, if you're interested: If your side hustle is depleting your energy then find another one that doesn't. You may be thinking you're working on your passion or whatever, but it isn't if you feel depleted not replenished when working on it. You shouldn't be walking around like a zombie while Googling productivity and work/life balance tips. Although, we're all lead to believe we should be in our overworked and over-stressed world.
And that's my best time management / mental health advice I can offer. Stop looking for hacks and find energy naturally by working on what feels good. Hope it helps someone.
But sometimes you have to work on tasks that are mentally draining just because of the nature of them. Yes, in an ideal world, you do all the things you love but most side hustles are going to include some things you don't love as much.
That is true. Everything has a sucky side. But I take the OP as saying some tasks or projects are overall better for energy levels.
I suspect for a full time coder, more coding could be draining. But if that same person took a year off, a coding side project might be fine.
It is good to understand your own motivations.
This is why I find biz courses hard because they are usually boring,
methodical, follow these exact steps. You hit something you disagree with, hate doing or find unethical and then the course is kind of a pain. I would prefer to learn principles.
I think side projects are good for your mental health but not good for your physical health. I decided to do a few weeks break from my job to have time to work on them.
I launched a first MVP : guruscorner.co that allows to create betting challenges. Do not hesitate to promote your projects there!
100% agree with this. I used to spend so much time looking for productivity hacks and eventually realized that if I'm mentally happy then that equals productive.