Too Much No Time

Like we discussed last time. Having a full time day job and a side hustle can be strenuous at times. While for some there are peak seasons for sales and others are always busy, but for some it is hit or miss. I happen to fall into the peak season category. Over the past 3 years I have been able to track my peak seasons and this has made it a bit easier to be prepared for the potential influx of orders. Now it has been a series of many times my peak season for sales here at StudioKay have also lined up with my peak season at my full time job. So being able to manage my time takes great care and attention.

As of now we are reaching the 4th of July. This is typically my busiest time of year. I am in charge of a big project at work so that does take up a lot of my mental space. Now surprisingly the side hustle is slow as of right now. But that’s not to say it will pick up quickly. This does however leave me more time to get stuff done around the house. I can tend to the yard as it is quite large. Making sure the house is clean. Keeping up with the laundry, etc. etc.

Although I will say though my poor car needs some loving more than anything. LOL

Now I also run into certain issues like I have several times in the past. Many times I have worked on special request orders for customers. Now for the majority everything goes ok, but other times issues come up. How does this relate to Too Much No Time? Well I am glad you asked. On top of orders and whatever busy time it may be with the day job, something can sometimes go wrong with shipping where orders have not arrived yet or have arrived, but the customer has not received them yet. Other times there has been an issue with an item that I have missed and must rectify the problem for the customer. Now I am always willing to make sure the customer gets what they ordered. So if there was an error on my part then I will usually make another item and ship it out. When I do this I will have to rush the order, so any orders that I may have to do I will put aside and rush the remake to the top of the cue. I always want to make sure the customer has a perfect product. The products that I create are for special and life changing memories. I don’t want a second of that memory tarnished by a flaw in something that I have made for them. So yes there have been times I have pushed other projects aside to make sure corrections get sent out.

Now sometimes there are issues with shipping. On my first ever order I mis-read the shipping instructions and didn’t pay enough so the item got sent back to me. By the time I realized it the customer needed it in 2 days. So the outrageous money I spent for overnight shipping to make sure they got what they ordered made me sick. But I knew that I needed to do right by the customer. Especially when the issue was my fault. Just the other day I had shipping issues that were not of my own. In fact the post office had made a mistake. With this product I had a bit of time to figure it out but not a lot. So I then spend half of a day on the phone with various post’s office’s all the way across the country trying to locate a package. But don’t worry the package was located!

Now aside from order and product issues, there then becomes the time it take to fulfill orders. The day job can be anywhere from 8-14 hour shifts. Like I said in earlier blogs I can work morning, mids, or overnights. So that leaves me to find the time to squeeze in orders before or after my shifts. If I work my mid shifts. I will have to get up early to work on orders. Where as If I work a morning shift I have to muster up the energy to work on orders after work. I say "must" because I work out in the sun all day, so by the time I get home the sun exposure has left me wiped. Now either of these times are good and leave me with plenty of time to work on orders and projects. However, time does gets away from me or issues arise. To which then comes the time to work on orders after my night shifts. I get home at midnight and go straight to the shop. Which is kind of spooky sometimes. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

So don't ever ask me what day it is; because, I have no clue. Just riding that wave of life.

Now also which how hectic the day job is I always lose what day of the week it is. Why does this matter? SHIPPING! Sometime I promise a rush order if I am asked nicely, BUT I always have to be aware of what day it is. Because my post office is closed on the weekends. So i have to be sure I am not promising something that I can’t pull through on. Also I have to know for day job as well. I work on many projects and have to keep them on track so knowing how many days I have to get something done is imperative!!!

We have all heard that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done, and this is very much true. With such an active mind like mine I wish there was more time. I have so many ideas for so many projects I have to take a step back and prioritize my time in sequence of there importance.

So to the struggle of finding enough time. . . she be real. . . . tick tock….