If you’re working full-time and running a side hustle, you know how important it is to be efficient with your time and resources. And one of the best ways to maximize your output (and sanity) is by getting organized.

The Silent Side Hustle Killer

There are a lot of factors that can prevent a side hustle from really taking off. But there’s one silent killer that consistently destroys businesses from the inside out with very little notice or fanfare. We’re talking about sprawl.

Sprawl is what happens when you don’t have a plan for all of the data and collateral that your business produces on a daily basis. As a result, your business spreads out further and further until you have data, files, payments, and communications littered across dozens of applications, websites, and accounts. The longer you let this sprawl go, the more challenging it becomes to rein it back in.

If you want to give your side hustle any chance of succeeding, you have to be more organized. This starts with curbing sprawl and centralizing your resources. This allows you to spend less time tracking down information and more time adding value to your business and its customers.

5 Tactics for Staying Organized

Getting organized doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a very specific plan and disciplined decision-making.

1. Organize Expenses

Nothing will throw you off quite like disorganized finances. When invoices, expenses, and payments are haphazardly stored in different places, it’s hard to know where you stand. (Are you losing money? Making money? Wasting resources in a specific area of the business?)

Get organized by using one platform for invoicing and bookkeeping. Connect it to a single bank account (separate from your personal account) and run everything through it.

It’s also imperative that you balance your books on a daily basis, rather than waiting for the end of the week, month, or quarter. If you do it every day, it’ll only take a few minutes.

2. Create a File Storage System

As data sprawl becomes an issue, you’ll find it difficult to locate all of the files you need. By using a single, concentrated file storage system for your side hustle, you reduce stress, save time, and promote greater clarity.

If you haven’t already, we recommend switching over to a cloud storage solution for all of your document needs. With a solution like Box cloud storage, you can securely access all of your files from any device, anywhere.

3. Maintain Calendar

You need a calendar. And you need to be meticulous with how you manage this calendar. Every deadline, appointment, and reminder needs to go on the same calendar as your primary calendar.

In other words, there’s no such thing as keeping a separate calendar for your side hustle and your personal life/primary career. By keeping everything in one place, you never lose track of an important date or obligation.

4. Use Automation

There are so many incredible applications and tools available online. The key is to use them wisely. One of the more powerful ways to accomplish this is by using automation.

Tools like IFTTT and Zapier allow you to connect different applications, implement automated processes, and streamline repetitive, mundane tasks with the click of a button. This reduces the amount of time required to perform basic processes. It also keeps you more organized.

5. Get Focused

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 Principle. It states that you get 80 percent of your results from 20 percent of your actions. But with a side hustle, you can probably take that a step further. Rather than trying to do a dozen different things, find your “one thing” and focus all of your energy on that.

There might be a handful of tasks associated with your “one thing,” but the point is to not spread yourself so thin that you’re focusing on lots of different projects. For example, don’t try to launch a podcast, create a blog, and develop three courses in the span of six months. Instead, just work on building up the podcast. Focus leads to better quality and a higher likelihood of success.

What’s Your Plan?

Hopefully, the suggestions outlined above give you a good place to begin. However, you’ll have to architect a plan that works for you. Consistency and discipline are the main ingredients. If you create a plan and commit to it, you’ll see improvement. That’s a guarantee!