It’s challenging to work multiple part-time jobs. You’ll likely find yourself feeling disorganized or consistently running out of time to take care of your personal life. Whether you’re working extra jobs to increase your income to pave the path to debt freedom, or you’re not able to find a full-time job in your field, or you’re like me – starting a new business, learning how to manage multiple part-time jobs is hard.Â
Regardless of your reasons, balancing your time effectively is essential to staying sane.Â
Three Tips To Effectively Manage Multiple Part-Time Jobs
1. Automate Your Personal Life
One of the things I find to be the most challenging about managing multiple part-time jobs is to find time for my personal life. Simple things such as going grocery shopping, paying bills, or cleaning the house move to the back burner. I consistently feel I’m behind.
One strategy to reduce the stress of managing your personal life is to automate as much as possible. Set your bills on auto-pay. My finances are 100% automated. The only time I spend managing my monthly bills is approximately 20 minutes a week, reviewing my transactions in YNAB.
I eat the same things every week to reduce the need for meal planning. I’ll mix things up based on what’s on sale, but for the most part, my grocery list stays the same. My list is saved in my Walmart profile. I review it every Friday and schedule a pick up on my way home.
I haven’t yet found a way to automate my laundry. I’m not willing to pay a laundry service, but I do keep a minimalist wardrobe. Most of everything I wear is black, grey, or leopard print, which saves me time deciding what to wear and makes laundry a breeze – no sorting.
2. Stay Focused On Your Why
Keep your eye on the prize, so to speak. If you feel strongly about the reason you’re working so many jobs, it’ll save your sanity during the challenging times. You’ll have something to look forward to and to motivate you when you’re feeling low. Â
Managing multiple part-time jobs requires you to keep yourself surrounded with images and reminders of the reason you’re working so hard, so you don’t forget. I keep a picture of a farm on my fridge because this is one of the reasons I decided to start my own business, which requires me to work more than one job. I’m frequently reminded of my overall goal to create a more flexible lifestyle, which is a requirement of living on a farm.
3. Plan Downtime
At first blush, this seems silly. Why would you plan down time? If you know you have two hours to binge on Netflix, or take a nap – you’ll find yourself able to power through another shift or deal with another irritating customer.Â
You’ll also find that you won’t feel guilty when you do binge on Netflix, because it was planned on your calendar. You already permitted yourself some freedom to relax. Put it on the calendar and give yourself some much-needed rest.
What tips do you have to manage multiple part-time jobs effectively? Share them with me in the comments below.
Read more:
Great Part-Time Jobs That Pay Well
How to Master Your Money in 2020
How to Balance a Side Hustle With a Full-Time Job
Kate Fox is a former CPA, with twenty years of experience in public accounting and corporate finance. Born and raised in Alaska, Kate is currently based out of southeastern North Carolina. She loves coaching others on personal finance and spends her free time traveling with her family or relaxing by the pool with a good book, probably about money.