how to combine freelance work with a full time job

There are a variety of reasons for joining the freelance community. For example, expand their career, more money, achieve more goals and try something different. Do you feel hard to choose between working full-time and a freelance career? A full-time job and a freelance job can be combined perfectly together. You get more experience and financial security. So, how to combine freelance work with a full-time job?

Be transparent

Check your employment contract carefully. Even though technically you can perform freelance projects without breaking any rule. Be open and transparent about your decision to your employer. Honesty is always the best policy. You can reassure the supervisors that you can stay 1000% focused at work and that the freelancing projects will not influence your full-time work. Moreover, maybe one day your full-time job will need knowledge from your freelance work.

Have a well-organized schedule and stick to it.

It is important to have a well-organized schedule because you have more work and less time. Time management is very important. Take some time to arrange the whole work schedule and list down every deadline, and time frame in there. You can divide the work and fit the work into any working hours for you. Remember to save time for editing and multiple revisions.

Determine your goal and start from the right timing

For sure not everything must start with a reason. But what are the motivations for you to take up the side project?

  • Do you plan to be a full-time freelancer later?
  • Do you want to gain more skills from the freelance project and switch to another career path?

You will have more approaches with a specific goal. Moreover, starting at a good time helps you reach the goal quickly. You may always consider taking on more projects in a certain field during a certain time. But if you are about to reach the busiest months of the year and you just want to stay in front of Netflix after work. Then maybe take fewer projects during this time.

combine full time job with a freelance work

Keep your work-life balance

It is more than exciting to know that you are capable of achieving a lot of freelance work. But be careful about how much work you take. If you feel tired and get cold very often, that may be a sign of burning out from too much work. An adult needs at least 7-9 hours of sleep per day. However, we usually sleep less than that time. Do you usually check your email before sleep? To keep your work-life balance, you can turn off notifications after work from time to time. Allow yourself to take a break from working all the time.

Focus on one thing at one time

Always stay focused on one thing at a time. Sometimes we have to finish everything in one hour for example go to pick up a document, buy some food, and answer a phone call on the way back. Interestingly, our brain can not function with two things that need a high level of concentration at the same time. In fact, our minds just switch to different tasks quickly. Instead of jumping from task to task, maybe let’s try to work with one task at a time. Your mind will feel less tense and you can focus on each task without missing any important detail.

It is possible to have a full-time position and work as a freelancer at the same time. Remember to always sign a freelancing contract before taking any side jobs. Save time for the slow day and welcome new clients.