Working on side projects, or side hustles, is extremely important. By simply having one, you are putting yourself ahead of your peers. If you start now, your future self is definitely going to thank you, so if you’ve already started, kudos to you! You’re well on your way to landing your first real job. So what are the reasons working on side projects puts you ahead of other students?
- You improve your work ethic
- You gain practical experience and skills
- You become more action-oriented
- You constantly build on your portfolio
- You teach yourself how to self-learn and experiment
Side projects can be essentially anything. Whether it be working on illustrations, phone apps, websites, blogs, or creating videos on YouTube. I would recommend choosing a side project that helps you achieve your long-term goals in your career.
I want to quickly note that the main goal of your side projects shouldn’t be to get rich. You should be focused on building something that will challenge you, improve your skills, leave a track record, and overall be fun to do.
If your side project meets these criteria, you will be able to find ways to monetize it.
1. You improve your work ethic
You should invest at least 1 hour every day to work on your side projects. It doesn’t matter if you go to school full-time and have a full-time job. You should be able to find enough time to put in that one hour of hard work.
Once you’re able to make this a priority, you will dramatically improve your worth ethic, learn to stop making excuses, and actually get your work done.
You’ll learn to work quickly, effectively, and strategically. You’ll also become consistent and dedicated to something that can improve both your work ethic and your future.
Over time, you’ll gain a sense of professionalism that will help you generate high-quality work.
After a year of being consistent, you will have 365 hours of hard work into your side project. Imagine what you could accomplish with anything in 365 hours.
I want you to think and visualize what 365 hours of hard work looks like using the examples of side projects I mentioned at the beginning of this blog.
By having a strong work ethic, you will come out ahead of other students when it’s time to get down to work – in school and the workplace.
Many well-established businesses have started out as side projects with the intent of helping others. They understood the market they were in, and they created something that the marketplace would value.
Two great shows to watch are Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank. Many of the entrepreneurs in those two shows started with side projects that turned into successful businesses.
2. You gain practical experience and skills
Your previous job experience is becoming less and less important. What matters is your ability to solve a problem and whether or not you’re able to do it effectively and efficiently.
By working on side projects, you begin to develop and improve many skills. For example, as I’m writing this blog, I’m improving my:
- Typing skills
- Ability to think of content quickly
- English writing skills
- Knowledge with WordPress
- And many more
You don’t need to work for an actual company to gain practical experience. If you follow method one of this blog by investing at least an hour a day to working on your side project, you will gain valuable experience in whatever niche you’re in.
This is also an advantageous way to secure a co-op position because the majority of students don’t work on side projects. You have the perfect opportunity to stay competitive in the workplace.
3. You become more action-oriented
You probably know people that talk about their big ideas, but they never execute them. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter how great your idea is, if you don’t start executing, nothing will change.
When you start dedicating time to work on a side project every day, it will eventually become a habit. You’ll realize how much you can actually get done in an hour.
This is why it’s so important to set your priorities in college. Once you actually settle down and start working on your side project, you’ll learn to value your time.
When you have an assignment or something you have to do, learn to get it done right away.
What some students don’t realize is that the faster you get things done, the more time you have. Let’s go through an example, if you:
- Sleep 8 hours a day
- Go to school 6 hours a day
- Work part-time 4 hours a day
- Eat and commute 2 hours a day
You’re still left with 4 hours left for the day even though this schedule is pretty extreme and unrealistic for most students.
What you do with those 4 hours can make a world of difference. Maybe you’re tired and want some time to relax, so you take an hour. Now you’re left with 3 hours for the day.
Because you’re a student, you’ll probably have some homework that needs to be done – but let’s say you procrastinate. You take an extra 2 hours to relax, leaving you with an hour left in the day.
You now have to rush your homework, decreasing the overall quality of your work, and probably your willingness to try.
You may even reduce the number of hours you have to sleep, leaving you feeling restless the next morning.
Because you aren’t action-oriented, you didn’t leave yourself with any time to work on your side project. As I mentioned earlier, the schedule I listed above is pretty unrealistic for most students.
Many students have a lot more time throughout the day, but they aren’t using it productively. Invest some time to work on your side project and you will become more action-oriented.
4. You constantly build on your portfolio
Building a portfolio is like building a track record.
In short, having a portfolio is proof of your abilities and work. You’re able to show people and employers what you’re capable of. This is more valuable than saying what you can do on a resume.
When you work on side projects, there’s an endless number of projects you can add to your portfolio.
This doesn’t mean you should work on small projects just to fill your portfolio either. Big side projects can be far more valuable in terms of what you can accomplish.
As you’re building your portfolio, you can also build your professional profile on platforms like LinkedIn. LinkedIn, in my opinion, is the best way to network with professionals in your niche.
You can look for jobs, get advice, and talk to others in your niche. The more projects you have in your portfolio, the more people will be willing to connect with you.
5. You teach yourself how to self-learn and experiment
If you truly want to succeed in anything, you need to understand that college alone will not get you there. If this was true, everyone that graduates from college would be “successful.”
You need to teach yourself how to do your own research and learning. When you work on side projects, you get into the nitty-gritty details.
You learn things that no other college student would if they only learned things from college.
As you get down to work, you’ll find solutions or methods on how to do something. Once you’re able to do it, you’ll find ways to do it better.
Using my blog as an example, I used to have all of my paragraphs be really close together, so it looked really blocky. So then I learned some code that allowed me to create spacing between my paragraphs.
Through this, I taught myself some CSS (a styling coding language) that really allowed me to present my information in a much clearer format.
Even though it’s basic, I would have never learned how to do any of this if I never taught myself how to start a blog. If you want me to write a blog on how to start one, leave a comment down below!
The point is, when you work on side projects, you’ll experiment with different things and you’ll teach yourself how to be self-sufficient.
Conclusion
Working on side-projects will extremely benefit you in the future. You’ll gain practical experience and skills that most college students won’t.
If you haven’t already, spend some time thinking about what you’d love to accomplish in the near future. Invest an hour a day on that project and the sub-projects that arise and document your journey – your future self will thank you.
Next, take a read at my Everything you need to know about side hustles blog.
Do you have another reason for why you think college students should work on side projects?
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