For almost a year and a half now, I have been balancing a full time career in marketing in the financial services industry and blogging and content creation for Hello Emily Erin. Working a full-time job, 9-to-5, 40+ hours a week can be a lot to adjust to on it’s own. Then, you throw in a whole SIDE HUSTLE in content creation and blogging and you’ve got a full plate. Not to mention, the post-grad blues (trust me, it’s real), a social life, cooking, cleaning, working out, etc….it can get a bit overwhelming.
Luckily, I have developed some strategies to make the balancing act a bit easier. Today, I will take you through my time management process and strategies for balancing the corporate career with a side hustle.
Consider (and Negotiate) Your Brand Deadlines
When I first started content creating, I would shoot for brand deals pretty much the day before the deadline. I would never negotiate the timeline of campaigns, but I would just accept them as is. Even if it meant having one day to shoot once the product arrived – CRAZY! Now I am super careful with deadlines, ensuring I can balance them with my busy schedule and job. I ask for AT LEAST one week to shoot after the product arrives. I do this because there is a lot that goes into shooting content.
Before a shoot, I prep the product. This could mean styling my home or steaming some clothing items and grabbing shoes to match. I come up with content ideas – whether it is scrolling Pinterest or reviewing the creative brief for the campaign. Coordinating a shoot time with my photographer comes next, all assuming weather permits (which it often doesn’t here in Florida). Once the photoshoot is done, I review and edit photos, making sure they meet brand guidelines. After that, I’ll create my caption and send everything off to the brand for approval. This entire process allows me to be a better partner to brands. It also ensures that the content is meeting both of our needs.
Given everything that goes into a sponsored post, I ask for AT LEAST one week to shoot and turn in content once I’ve received the product. If the campaign requires me to go pick up the product from a local store, I make sure to ask for extra time to accommodate that request. Knowing that I’m busy at least 9-to-5 on weekdays with my full-time job, I reserve this kind of shopping for weeknights or weekends and my shoots for weekends.
Shoot on Weekends
Like I mentioned, I am consistently busy 9-to-5 Monday-Friday with my corporate marketing job in the financial services industry. Knowing this, I reserve all of my content shoots for the weekends!
As you know, I negotiate this into all of my contracts. With at least a 7 day turnaround time, I will have AT LEAST one weekend to work with when I’m planning out my shooting time.
I do plan to shoot most weekends – it’s always nice when a weekend frees up, but it’s better to block the time anyway. Sunday is usually my day of choice. My preference is to shoot in the afternoon or closer to golden hour. I’ll batch out all of my looks and products to shoot to ensure I’ll have time to accomplish everything.
If I have a lot of items I want to shoot, I’ll sometimes plan to shoot Saturday AND Sunday. I try to avoid this as I like to keep a strong work-life balance, but sometimes this is the easiest way!
Get Your Life Together on Sunday Night
This step is SO IMPORTANT to me – like if I miss it, $#@* hits the fan. I grab my Day Designer planner and compare it against my Outlook Calendar for work. I write in each meeting for the week in the schedule section. Once I have a good idea of my work schedule for that week, I’ll plop in my workouts or any social engagements. I like having a page dedicated to each day in my planner. This helps me visualize my day and see when there are gaps when I can be accomplishing different tasks.
My planner also has a to-do list section for each day. I’ll write different tasks such as “push blog post live” or “share X brand Instagram post”. I like to keep these separate from my work tasks by color-coding. Visualizing all of my tasks on the same page helps me to understand all that I have going on each day, whether for work or my blog.
Content Scheduling
Creating a schedule for each month helps me stay on top of brand deals. Doing so helps me to ensure that brand deadlines aren’t overlapping. This process also helps me to make sure I’m not inundating my audience with sponsored post after sponsored post. I like to make sure I am sharing enough original content to break up the sponsored posts that I share. I keep this in mind even though I am selective with sponsored content. To me, it is important to ensure I genuinely love the product before I choose to share it.
Setting up my content calendar allows me to post 5-6 days a week to my Instagram feed, knowing exactly what to post each day. I like to take a monthly calendar view and fill in content and deadlines as I am aware of them. For example, I know I share Tip Thursday posts every Thursday, so I will block out those days and write in the topic as I come up with it. I write in any sponsored post dates.
In the side panel next to the calendar, I write in any posts I know I will be sharing this month. I also write in any brands I’d like to pitch that month. Lastly, I write down any ideas I have, and pencil them in for days I don’t have another post planned. Pretty quickly, the days fill up and I can have a clear idea in mind of what I am posting each day.
Posting Times
Since I work the typical hours of a 9-to-5 job with lots of meetings, I post at specific times. I post either before 9, between 12-1, or after 5. Following this schedule ensures that my posting times do not interfere with meetings or my corporate job. When I share a post, I like to make sure I can stay on for at least 30 minutes following the post to engage with my audience, so I factor this in when planning my posting dates and times.
Turn in Your Content in Advance
Brands love to see content in advance of the posting date and campaign. Knowing this, I make sure I write any deadline associated with the campaign in my planner so I can anticipate it. For example, if I know content is due on a Tuesday, I’ll write in a reminder to shoot the prior weekend and another reminder Monday night to ensure the content is in.
Making sure my content is in prior the deadline allows the brand to provide feedback. Doing so also allows time for me to make any edits/re-shoot if necessary. Brands also love creators who consistently turn in content early!
That’s it – those are the tips for ya! Do you work a full-time job in addition to a side hustle? What has worked well for you? Any tips? Share them below!
Are you a new blogger or content creator looking for more resources? Check out these recent posts:
- Boost Your Instagram Story Engagement
- How to Get Noticed By Brands for Collaborations
- Pitching to Brands as an Influencer (+ real email templates that I actually sent!)
- The Tea on Instagram Giveaways
