How I Balance A Full-Time Job + 2 Side Hustles

I encounter two things when people find out that I work full time and have two different side hustles... People either ask how in the heck I juggle it all, or have absolutely no idea how much time goes into blogging and photography/photo editing. While the latter is definitely something I like to bring awareness to and talk about (good photos and content take a lot of work!), today I want to talk about balancing it all while still having a healthy marriage, eating healthy and working out, and having some downtime too.

PS - you can read about what I do for my full-time job here

I schedule every single day out and often plan weeks ahead. When I run home to let the dogs out and eat lunch, often times I'm taking photos for a beauty or favorites post, posting Instagram stories, and packing up clothes for a shoot and/or workout class. Evenings after work (my full time job) and weekend afternoons are spent photographing clients, or taking outfit photos. The evenings I have meetings for my full time gig definitely make certain weeks harder. I try to meal plan every weekend and buy all the groceries I need for the week. I also put workout classes on my Google calendar and treat them like appointments. At night after dinner, a workout, and shower I'm usually editing photos, writing a blog post, answering emails, and engaging on social media. Trey and I love to schedule a dinner out or a relaxed night of takeout at home, and love going to sporting events together too. We make sure we fit in together time.

Basically, time management and motivation are key! Some days I kill it, and other days are a little disastrous, but I do my best and am always trying to get better at it!

Now... I'm not hustling 100% every day. I definitely take evenings off to just de-stress and spend time with Trey. Sometimes I'm so worn out that all I want to do is put down my phone and computer and just snuggle up to watch a tv show and go to bed before 11 or 12. 

Other things that help...

Trey works a lot too 

Trey works full time as well (as the ISS teacher at our local high school) but also coaches football and basketball. He's not coaching as many hours as he used to, but he is definitely busy with practices until dinner most nights and when he has games they're late nights for him.

We have our own things

We make sure to spend time together every single day and love nothing more than doing things together, but we also have our own things. And I personally feel that's really healthy. For fun, Trey loves to ride trails on his bike, and play basketball and video games. I use "my time" to shoot blog posts, do photoshoots, go to workout classes, and read or catch up on blogs/social media. 

I multitask constantly

If we are watching TV together, a lot of times Trey is playing a video game and I'm editing photos, putting together a blog post, or engaging with others on social media. While we definitely set aside time where we put our devices away and just hangout (dinner dates and Game of Thrones for example 😉), we are almost always multitasking. Because I have so much to do at all times, I rarely feel like I can totally veg and watch TV. Doing blog or photography work keeps me caught up and keeps me from feeling guilty that I'm even sitting in the first place.

My calendars
Between meetings and events for my full time job, photo clients, and blog collaborations, my Google calendar and planner are LIFE! I wouldn't be able to keep my life straight without them. I us a Ban.do planner and it's absolutely amazing!

Sweater  |  Skirt  |  Ankle Boots (more sizes here) |  Hat

Sometimes I do get really behind... I'll admit that over the past couple of months my blog posts have been a lower priority, and the current state of my inbox definitely reflects that. Lately I've been choosing sleep, and I feel really guilty about that, but I was getting so worn down and needed to average more than 5 hours of sleep a night.

My house is also a wreck [more than] half the time. I do my best to pick up a bit each night and to clean like a mad woman on the weekends, but I'll admit it's hard to keep up with everything with so much going on!  

But overall, the hustle is so worth it right now! I know that we can keep pursuing our dreams when we have kids, but that it will be a lot harder. Thinking about the added expenses and adding in daycare drop-off and pickup and all of the other time is pretty overwhelming to me. I don't know how we'll fit it all in, but we'll take that road when we get there, and that will all be worth it too :) But for now, I'm focused on growing my 3 career paths, saving money and investing in our home, and most importantly, investing our marriage and getting in all the quality time with Trey that I can 💛

I hope you enjoyed today's post! I let it get a little long, and it's probably not as organized as it could be, but that's a side effect from being so busy...I'm pretty scatterbrained all the time 😜  I officially launched my photography business only a couple of months ago, but you can check out some of my photos here! Photography has really become a passion of mine and I can't wait to see where it (and my other hustles) leads me in the future. 

Love you all! xx