by Stanley Courage Dugah

Created on: December 07, 2011

Having a day job which occupies most of your days may be stressful at times but you’ve added one more or two, in order to be able to regularly pay off bills and save money for the future. And, now you need to balance your multiple jobs. Here’s how to go about doing that.

1. Manage stress

A single job may be easy to manage but not two or three. If you have a part time job besides your regular job, the most important thing you need to know is how to manage stress.

Stress arises when our mind together with the body feels overworked or tasked excessively. It’s thus important to rest as much as possible while working two or three jobs. Draw up a time table to identify the amount of time you have outside your multiple jobs and use them judiciously, for sleep, rest and other activities to refresh your mind and body.

Having enough rest everyday; in effect managing stress is vital to balancing multiple jobs.

2. Be equally responsible

While working two or three jobs, you may be tempted to devote more time to the job that pays most (or the one you're more concerned with) and neglect the other, but it shouldn’t be so, most importantly when you’re working for someone who expects you to be totally responsible.

Such a situation may also arise if you try dividing your time between a day job and your personal business. But you need to be honest and respect your employment contract.

Also, don’t let your day job prevent you from honoring a part time job in the evening. Schedule your time smartly, so as to be able to balance and honor both jobs.

3. Don’t overwork yourself

You may get laid off from one job if your daily performance falls. Maybe, you’re having two or three jobs and you’re finding it difficult to get adequate sleep and rest and can no longer cope with it all.

In this case, prioritizing your multiple jobs becomes important. You may need to drop a particular job if you’re not having enough time to rest. Better to have one steady job than multiple ones from which you risk being dismissed?

If you can manage working them all, fine. Just make sure you get enough sleep and rest while doing that.

4. Become a one-seconds-manager

The above tip may sound a bit over the top but it makes perfect sense if you need to balance multiple jobs. Every second, minute and hour of your day becomes important. Time to spend at work, time for resting and if possible, short vacations should all be scheduled in advance.

Thus, the key to balancing multiple jobs lies in managing stress, having enough rest, making time for loved ones and yourself and being equally responsible at your workplaces.

Learn more about this author, Stanley Courage Dugah.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.