Students who are still pursuing their education or freelancers and work as home mothers are people who are most prone to ask this question – how to balance multiple jobs easily?
These are stages in life when individuals take up side jobs to add some extra income. When you have a 9 to 5 job, managing the routine may not be that difficult. But when you take up projects and assignments from different companies, the scenario can be quite different.
Here are some simple tips that will help you manage and balance multiple jobs without getting worked up.
12 Ways to Handle or Balance Multiple Jobs:
1. Prepare a Timetable for Yourself:
The major challenge faced by individuals who take up multiple jobs is surely balancing time and allocating sufficient time for each project at hand. If the whole work is not properly planned well in advance, you may end up in the midst of chaos. The best way to address this challenge is by preparing a proper timetable.
You need to first enumerate the number of tasks at hand. After that, you need to allocate sufficient time to each task. Make sure you plan your work day such that you still have ample time to rest, eat, sleep and do other daily chores. While, preparing a timetable may not be all that difficult, adhering to it can be really tough.
2. Pick Opportunities that Would Add To Your Professional Skills:
When you are studying and have some extra time at hand, you may consider earning an extra income through work from home assignments or part time jobs. You must remember that after you graduate, there will be a point when you have to pick a full-time career. At that point, if you already possess certain skills related to the job, you will find it easy to bag the most desirable job.
So when you are taking up multiple jobs, make sure you develop skills in the field that you wish to pursue later. For instance, if you wish to become an SEO executive, it would be a great idea to take up projects where you understand keywords, back-linking and different aspects of search engine optimization.
3. Prepare a Checklist of the Tasks You Wish To Complete:
While a timetable helps you schedule the daily tasks, it is still wise to keep a physical checklist handy. Enumerate all the tasks for the day in the checklist. Make sure all the tasks are enumerated as per the priority. Ensure that most vital tasks should be listed first.
As soon as any of the tasks in the checklist is completed, tick it off. It helps you feel an achievement sense. It gives you a feel of your progress through the day. The practice of keeping a checklist also adds to the competitive spirit. If you do online work, you may even prepare an excel sheet as a checklist.
4. Set A Maximum Limit:
It is extremely important that you set an upper limit for the tasks you are going to take up. When you are doing a regular office job, the company decides how much you should work. When you are doing a part time, work from home or freelance job, things could be quite different. An urge to earn more money may push you to work more hours.
It is thus important that you set an upper limit. If you get more work than the specified upper limit, you should keep it for another day or think of better alternatives.
5. Take Regular Breaks Between Work:
Workaholics often forget to take breaks during their hectic work routines. While in office, there are lunch and tea breaks where you get to refresh yourself between work, at home you need to make these decisions on your own. You must schedule your day such that there are breaks at regular intervals.
It is known that continuous work can stress our mind and eventually prevent it to perform properly. Regular work breaks help you to refresh your mind and get rid of the piled up stress. This eventually helps you do better at the task you have been assigned or the project you have undertaken.
6. Manage Time Effectively:
We are lazy and fun loving people and often when there is no one to regulate our work, we get a bit lenient with ourselves. The drawback of work at home jobs is that there is a greater probably that you may exceed your usual breaks. You need to learn to manage time if you really want to succeed.
The best way would be to time your breaks as well as your daily work. You also need to check how much time you take to complete a particular task at hand. You need to track your efforts. See if time taken by you to complete the same task is reducing as you gain more experience. Such initiatives will also help you know exactly where you stand.
7. Communicate Effectively:
If you have to perform well professionally, you must be able to communicate well. This golden rule applies even to work from home jobs. There are several instances when you may have to communicate with the client or the project head. Proper communication skills help in such situations.
You must be able to explain your doubts clearly if you have any queries. You should be able to convey to the concerned people if there are any delays in completing the project at hand. You should also have a knack to send emails in the proper format.
8. Knowledge of Computers and Technology:
Very often, individuals get muddled up and are unable to complete the task at hand because they lack technical knowledge. You need to make sure you are updated with the latest developments. You need to give up archaic ways and use the most efficient way to complete the task at hand.
The excessive use of internet has made jobs really easy for individuals in various fields. There are applications and softwares that help to finish the task in a jiffy. Keep track of such technological advances in your field. It will help you perform better. It will also help to improve your job profile.
9. Get Proper Sleep:
As already mentioned, you need to plan your activities such that you have sufficient sleep during the night. Sleep is a vital ingredient in the normal functioning of the brain. If you quit regular sleep, it may lead to a number of different problems like stress, depression, acidity, lack of concentration, increased temper levels and also poor health.
It is never wise to compromise on health and sleep just to earn a little extra. The regular prescribed sleep is 6 to 8 hours and make sure that your body gets the required amount of sleep. If you are unable to manage the work at hand in the daytime hours, you must devise an alternate plan to complete the work rather than cutting down on sleep.
10. Spend Some Time To Socialize:
It is true that everyone needs to make money and sometimes managing the household expenses provokes you to work a bit extra. But this does not mean that you should avoid meeting friends and leading a normal social life. A routine social life is just as important as money.
If you have tough work schedules, you still need to arrange parties and get-togethers to meet up with old pals. There are many different benefits of socialising. One of the major benefit is that by speaking to people and having a jolly time, you get rid of stress. It helps you concentrate better on the work at hand.
11. Do Not Neglect Domestic Duties:
If you are a home maker or a working mother seeking some extra income, remember your household duties always matter more than money. Never take up multiple jobs i.e., more work than you can handle. Take up work to the level where you are able to cope with your other responsibilities too.
Domestic duties are important and the balance needs to be maintained at all times. An ideal strategy would be to include the daily chores too in the timetable for work. This way you will be in a position to plan your daily chores as well as work properly.
12. Take Out Some Time For Health:
Health is truly the greatest wealth an individual can possess. An individual who lacks good health will never be able to perform well in his professional life. Hence, while you concentrate on building a strong profile, you also need to allocate some hours to your health.
It is a great idea to allocate an hour or two for exercise that includes some mental exercises too. Mental exercises help to improve concentration, focus and agility. These are vital traits that count a lot in most of the prominent professions.
Conclusion:
Freelancing and work from home jobs are now in vogue. Many individuals opt for their independence and prefer to work without being associated with one single organization. If you are planned and organized, it is possible to achieve equal success in multiple jobs. You just need to possess the devotion, determination and dedication.
