We’d all like to earn a living doing something we love but with bills to pay and mouths to feed, it’s not always feasible. Luckily, the working landscape is changing and, with all the time saved in lockdown (and from not-commuting), you may find your lifestyle allows for more flexibility. Here are some tips to take advantage of this singular moment in time and transition to a more gratifying profession.
Sleep Management
One of the best ways to recoup time, energy and motivation is to better regulate your sleep patterns. With a good night’s rest, you may find you have enough juice to carry out your day job and work on your side hustle. You’ll also benefit holistically if you can avoid sleep deprivation, which can impair your ability to concentrate and affect productivity. To get an overview of your sleeping timetable, it’s worth investing in a Fitbit or other sleeping monitoring devices – some of these will give you an insight into your sleep quality and break down behavior hour-by-hour.
If you’re having trouble getting to sleep, there are a number of techniques recommended. These range from breathing exercises to visualization. You can also pay close attention to which foods and drinks aid or hinder good quality sleep – for example, chamomile can work as a sedative or you could try passionflower to help reduce obsessive thoughts that contribute to insomnia.
Education
Once you’re certain that you have the time, energy, and finances, you can begin to think about how to transition from a job you’re not so keen about to a job you know you’d love. A good first step is to acquire a degree or diploma. Many job markets are inaccessible unless you’ve got the right credentials. Going back to school can open up new career paths and allow you to develop the critical skills that are required for success in a chosen field. Best of all, plenty of degrees (including Batchelor’s) can be fully accessed online so you won’t need to worry about geographical restrictions.
If you’re skilled in a craft but don’t know how to monetize, you could look into studying business. This will help you to develop management, leadership, marketing skills as well as improving your financial acumen. A degree in business may also have applications in your day job, so you can be sure to progress your earning ability.
Time Management
Even if you have the energy and qualifications, transitioning from one job to another or potentially even giving up a living to pursue a dream can be enormously complicated. Depending on the circumstances of your life, you may have to navigate around family obligations, financial risk, relationships, and other constraints. To help with this, it’s worth addressing time management. There are a number of apps to help you better track your time and ensure you’re not wasting any.
Apps and organization, whilst useful, can only ever get you so far. If you want to hold down a job whilst preparing to safely transition into a new one – you’ll have to get to grips with monotasking. Studies show that only 2.5% of Americans can effectively multi-task and that multitasking often leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity whereas monotasking is the practice of ‘dedicating oneself to a given task and minimizing potential interruptions’. If you can focus in small bursts, you may find at the end of the day you get more done.
If any of the above makes chasing your dream sound difficult, that’s because it is. Taking the leap from a steady job to a full-time passion is risky and hard work, but the rewards can also make up for it. As the saying goes, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’
At Her Retirement, we use a fresh, modern approach to show women of all ages, in all walks of life how to be financially smarter, stronger, wealthier, and wealthier – now and in retirement. To learn more, talk to a RetireMentor.
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