How to keep a health habit when your evenings go to a side business

Why a health habit stops when you start a business on the side

In most situations where a health habit stops, something outside you takes its time. A job asks for more hours, a family member needs you, or someone else sets a schedule you have to follow. With a side business, you are the one who takes the time. You decide the business gets your evenings and your weekends, and you do it because you want the business to work.

Here is how that tends to play out. The Monday and Wednesday yoga class at 7 p.m. stopped because 7 to 10 on weeknights is now when you pack and ship orders. The Saturday run with a group at 7 a.m. stopped because Saturday morning, when the house is quiet, became your longest stretch of work on the app you are building. The walk after dinner stopped because after dinner is when you answer client emails.

In each of those cases, nobody actually decided to drop the habit. What they decided, once, near the start, was that evenings and weekends were for the business. The habit was not part of what they decided. Nobody sat down and said "and the Monday yoga class goes." It went because the evening it used was now the business's evening. This is a question of time: who gave it away, what it went to, and what was left out when that happened. It does not mean the business was a mistake, and it does not mean you care less about your health than you used to.

Nobody else took the time

This is the part that makes a side business different from most of the other situations covered on Healthy & Awake. There is no boss, client, kid, parent, commute, or holiday host who took this hour. You gave it to something you started and care about.

That changes how people look at it. When someone else takes your time, the cause is easy to see and easy to name. When you gave the time away yourself, for something you wanted, people rarely think of it as a time problem at all. They say "it's a busy season of life" or "I'll get back to it once the business is going." Some people say "once it's making money" or "once I can quit my day job," and that line usually comes with no date.

Why the business keeps winning even when nothing is due

On a lot of weeknights, no customer is waiting on you and nothing is due. Nothing would go wrong if you closed the laptop at 8:30 and took the walk. Most nights, the walk still does not happen. There are two plain reasons for that.

The first is that a business never runs out of work on a given night. There is always one more product listing to write, one more invoice to send, a bug to fix, a photo to edit, or an email to answer. So there is no point in the evening where the business is clearly finished and the walk can start. If the business gets three hours, it can use three hours. If it gets the whole evening, it can use the whole evening. That is true of almost any business, and it is more true when the business is yours, because there is nobody who closes the shop at a set time and sends everyone home.

The second is that the business shows you its progress and the habit does not. An evening on the business ends with something you can see: twelve orders packed and labeled, the landing page live, a client's logo sent, a new number on the sales page. An evening walk ends with nothing you can point to that night. You walked, and that is all. So an hour on the business feels like it counted, and an hour on the walk can feel like an hour taken away from something that matters to you.

Neither of these is a flaw in you. They are plain facts about a business that belongs to you and has no closing time, next to a health habit whose results do not show up on any one evening.

What this usually looks like a few months in

A bookkeeper at a dental office works 8 to 4:30 and opened an online candle shop in the spring. She packs and ships orders at the kitchen table from 7 to 10 on weeknights. Before the shop, she went to a 7 p.m. yoga class on Mondays and Wednesdays. She has not been since April, and she never decided to stop.

A man in IT support has been building a budgeting app at night since March. He used to run with a group at 7 on Saturday mornings. Saturday morning, when the house is quiet, became his longest stretch of work on the app, and after a while the group stopped texting him about the run.

A graphic designer at an agency does freelance logos for small businesses on the side. After dinner used to be her walk around the lake. Now after dinner is when she answers client emails and sends revisions, and on most nights there is one more revision to send.

A man sells used books at a booth at a weekend market from 7 to 1 on Saturdays, and he spends Sunday afternoons listing books online. Saturday used to be his long bike ride. Sunday afternoon used to be when he cooked for the week.

A woman keeps a task board for her business with 46 cards on it, each one with a date. The walk she used to take every evening is not written down anywhere. She noticed this when she added card 47.

A man told his wife, "I'll get back to the gym once the business is paying me." That was a year and a half ago. The business is doing well. It still does not pay him enough to quit his job, and he has not been back to the gym.

Nobody in these examples was forced to give up the habit, and nobody decided to give it up either. They decided to build something, and the habit was not part of that decision. After that, the business used every hour it was given.

Why "make it non-negotiable," a stop time, and short workouts don't fix this

Most of the advice you find for people building a business on the side says to treat your workouts like meetings you cannot cancel, work out first thing in the morning, set a hard stop time for business work, do short hard workouts, pack your gym bag the night before, think of your health as an investment in your business, and watch out for burnout.

Most of that treats the business as something to limit and the habit as something to protect from it, as if the business took your time against your wishes. But you gave the business that time because you wanted to, and you probably still want to. Advice that starts from "protect yourself from your business" does not fit how most people feel about something they chose and are proud of.

The idea that your health is an investment in your business has its own problem. It turns the walk into one more business task, something you do because it helps the shop or the app. That is not why most people want the walk back. They want it because they used to take it and it was theirs.

And a rule like "it's non-negotiable" or "I stop at 9" skips the actual problem. The habit was left out of the decision about what your evenings are for. A rule added later is still sitting outside that decision, and the business is still the thing the evenings were given to.

What to think about if your evenings go to a side business

Here are some plain questions to ask about your own week. They are for thinking about. They are not a procedure, a checklist, or a plan.

• When I started the business, did I ever think about where the habit would go, or did I only decide that evenings and weekends were for the business?
• Which hours did the habit use before the business, and what happens in those hours now?
• On a normal weeknight, is there a point where the business work is clearly done, or is there always one more thing?
• Does the business have a list, a board, or a calendar with dates on it, and is the habit written down anywhere?
• When I say "once the business is going," do I know what date that is?
• Do I think of the habit as time taken away from the business?

Because you are the one who decides what your evenings are for, the habit can be part of that decision on purpose. Otherwise it is whatever is left after the business is done for the night, and on most nights that turns out to be nothing. This page does not lay out how to make the habit part of that decision. That part is what practical time management around one practice is for.

How this differs from nearby Healthy & Awake guides

This page is about keeping a health habit when you work full time and give your evenings and weekends to a business you started. Nearby pages answer different questions.

• What it actually means to prioritize health on a busy schedule is about one hour when the walk and something else need the same time, and the other thing has someone waiting on it. Here there is no single hour like that and nobody waiting. The evenings were given to the business ahead of time.
• How to keep a health habit when you work and care for an aging parent is about care that takes your evenings and weekends on someone else's schedule. Care is something you have to do. The business is something you chose.
• How to keep a health habit through a busy season at work is about a crunch at your job that has an end date. The business has no end date, and nobody is waiting for it to be over.
• How to keep an after-work health habit when it gets dark early is about a habit that stops when nothing took its time. Here you took the time, for something you want.
• How to keep a health habit when you go back to the office is about the commute and the office taking back time on set days. Nothing outside you took the time here.

How do I keep a health habit when my evenings go to a side business?

Start by seeing what happened to the time. When you build a business on the side, nobody else takes your workout time. You give your evenings and weekends to the business on purpose, and the habit usually is not part of that decision. Since you are the one deciding what those hours are for, the habit has to be part of that decision on purpose, instead of being whatever is left after the business is done for the night.

Why did my workouts stop after I started my business, when nobody made me give them up?

Because the hours they used became the business's hours, usually in one decision near the start. Nobody said "and the yoga class goes." The class just happened to be on the evenings you decided were for the business, so it stopped without anyone deciding to stop it.

Why does the business keep winning even on nights when nothing is due?

A business never runs out of work on a given night. There is always one more listing, invoice, fix, or email, so there is no point where it is clearly done and the walk can start. The business also shows its progress every evening, and the walk does not, so an hour on the walk can feel like an hour taken away from something that matters.

How is this different from a busy schedule or caring for a parent?

On a busy schedule or when caring for a parent, something or someone outside you takes the habit's time, and often someone is waiting on the other thing. With a side business, nobody took the time and nobody is waiting on you at 9 p.m. You gave the time away yourself, for something you chose.

When is practical time-management support worth considering?

When you already know what to do for your health and the problem is that one practice lost its place after you gave your evenings to a business you care about, practical time management around that one practice is a different kind of help than a stop-time rule or a burnout warning. It will not grow the business or give you more hours.

Where Healthy & Awake Time Management fits

Healthy & Awake Time Management is a $47 practical time-management course for working adults who already know what to do for their health and want one practice to keep a place in a real week, including a week that has a day job and a business in it. Mike says on the course page, "I built this system while building my business, and I still use it to make room for my health and the rest of my life." It is educational time management around health. It is not business coaching, not a productivity system, not medical care, and not a nutrition or sleep plan. One payment includes lifetime access on the current offer, and the current offer comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The course will not grow your business or give you more hours in the week.

Also related: What it actually means to prioritize health on a busy schedule and How to keep a health habit when you work and care for an aging parent. Back to Healthy & Awake.