Building a blog while studying or while having a job is no easy task.
It hard to do it even when you can dedicate yourself to it full-time, so what about when you’re limited on time and stress levels are higher?
Many people told me that it wouldn’t come easily to me, and they were right. But many people doubted that I could make it, and I did it anyway. I built a successful freelancing business while studying dentistry and scoring a GPA of 3.92 in the first 2 years.
Sound outrageous, right?
Here are 4 tips that helped me make it happen and that can make your chances of succeeding higher. Don’t forget to grab your cheat sheet; it will help you apply the tips shared in this post.
Focus Focus Focus!!
You’re limited on time. You have less than half the amount of time than others have to build their business. So what should you do?
You need to focus more. You need to do what takes others 10 hours in less than 5 hours. You also need to trim out all the unnecessary stuff. Don’t create content on all social media platforms. Focus on 1 or 2 that deliver the most results and ignore the rest, for now at least.
The question now is how to get more done in half the time.
I tried many different things but there was one technique that helped me do it easily, the Pomodoro technique.
In this technique, you set a timer to 25 minutes and focus on doing one simple task, like writing a post for example. And in this 25 minutes you try to finish whatever you can before the timer rings. But you can’t break the session, so you need to do it all at once with no interruptions.
Then you rest for 5 minutes, and repeat the cycle 4 times, and then take a bigger rest (30 minutes).
I know it sounds too good to be true, but after trying it for a week you’ll be a believer.
Your Secret Weapon
Many people have asked me what my secret weapon is. At the beginning, I said I didn’t have one, but after comparing other people’s routines to my own, I’ve found something that I consider to be my secret weapon.
And it is having a morning routine.
I know you’ve heard it before, but most successful people do have a morning routine for a reason. First of all, you have some of the best time where there aren’t any distractions, so you can get a lot of work done.
I was resistant about adding a morning routine before college; I barely woke up on time as it was, but when I noticed that Tim Ferriss always asks his podcast listeners what their morning routine is, I knew that they were doing it for a reason.
You don’t even to do any work at the beginning, a quick meditation session or just journaling what you want to get done in the day will set you up for success.
As you become more in love with it, you can add more time to your morning routine, and you could get an hour or two of pure focus time to accomplish a lot.
You’re also doing it before going to work and before any big emergency happens that could change your day completely.
Having my morning routine made me sure that even if an emergency happens in the evening, I would consider my day a successful one.
Choose One Path
This one piece of advice I wish I knew earlier.
Why are you blogging or doing what you do? Choose one business model and follow it. So maybe you want to earn affiliate income, or you want to sell more of your products, or get money through ads.
Whatever it is, choose one model. And then choose one strategy that will help you accomplish this model and be successful.
So you may decide to focus on doing ads, or guest posting or writing those uber long posts to get more traffic. Just use one strategy that suits your needs.
And focus only on this strategy. Don’t follow any trends that may come along the way. They come and go. Focus on your strategy.
After you get that one strategy down pat, you can change things as you go and include more income streams, more traffic potentials.
But just focus on one till you reach a satisfactory goal.
Evolve Yourself
I once heard Jim Rohn say, “Your business growth won’t exceed your personal growth.”
After applying this quote, things have changed considerably for me. I started changing my habits. Remove the bad ones and add better ones.
I started focusing more on my health. I started to read more books. I was journaling more. I meditated more.
And I noticed one thing: my business growth took a huge spike and my energy levels and focus level were through the roof.
You can’t build a successful business if you’re not a person who’s capable of being successful. You need to be capable of it. Don’t be the limiting factor in your business growth.
You Can Do It
I know many people will doubt that you can accomplish anything while working full-time. I know people doubted me.
But I am here to tell you that you can do it.
Just listen to yourself, follow the path you’ve set out, and apply the tips shared here.
I’ve applied all these tips and it was hard at first, but after I got into it, things were much easier for me.
And to make it easier for you to apply the tips in this post, I’ve created a cheat sheet. Grab it here.