For one reason or another, you may be blending freelancing income with a traditional job (part-time or full-time). Are you feeling the struggle? Looking for some tips to help make it a bit easier? I struggled a lot with this, too, and I’m happy to share the tips that helped me the most! Let’s dive in.

Take the jobs seriously

There are so many advantages to freelancing, as I’ve talked about over the years. However, freelancing is very different from a side hustle. Freelancing is a deliberate career choice you must put a lot of time and effort into. When you have another job to work in, these tips can help you keep everything as logical as possible!

• Pick your priority: I’m starting with this for a reason. You need to pick which of the income streams is your priority. Is it the non-freelancing job or the freelancing one? I ask because many non-freelancing jobs have availability requirements, shift schedules, and so on. If you want to get as many hours as possible, prioritize the non-freelancing job. If your priority is to use the non-freelancing job to keep you afloat while you get your freelancing stable, then prioritize that one. It may mean fewer opportunities in the other job, but you know that going into it.

• Work within your window: Every freelancer has that perfect time to do their best work in the shortest amount of time. Regardless of what your priority is, try to allot that time to your freelancing. It’s so closely intertwined with creativity and passion for most of us that focusing on things this way makes sense.

• Plan for worst-case scenario: I’ve been in situations where both jobs get busy simultaneously, no matter how much I try to avoid it. So, I try to plan for this worst-case scenario and when it happens, I have a series of things I can do to get through and make it bearable until things even out again. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of overlapping writing deadlines or a need to be in-contact with clients even when working your other job.

• Make time for yourself: When you are working two jobs, you can start to lose yourself in the process. Try to carve out 10 minutes each day for yourself, the human. I talked about this a bit in my book because I think it really is important to remember that we are humans first and freelancers/non-freelance-workers second.  

Remember your reality

No matter how much planning you do and how optimistic you might be, there will be times when things just go wrong. You miss a deadline or make a mistake because you are worn down from balancing freelancing with a traditional job. It’s important to be kind to yourself and remember that you are doing the best you can. Remember the goal that you set out to achieve, and keep moving forward even — or especially — on the bad days!  

Does anyone else have some multi-job advice?  Please share!