How is it there are never enough hours in the day? From work, to friends & family, to hobbies and passion projects, sometimes it seems like there’s simply not enough time. And achieving any semblance of “balance” can feel impossible. Today, we’ll focus specifically on balancing a podcast and a career.
Define your podcasting and career goals
Having goals will help you determine if you’re on the right track, devoting too much time to your podcast and not enough to your career (and vice versa). For example, your podcast goals might include producing an episode per week, growing your podcast audience by 10% each month, and securing one big-name interviewee per quarter. Whatever your goals are, make them measurable. That way, you will be able to determine if you’re on the right track, need to invest more time/resources, or maybe even cut back a bit.
Podcast and career overlap: pro or con?
Is there overlap between your podcast and your career? Do you podcast about the industry in which you are employed? Yes? Awesome. No? Also awesome. There’s an old Tibetan parable about a family, some horses, and determining what’s “good” and what’s “bad.” The short version is: “could be good, could be bad; who knows?” When balancing a podcast and a career, having overlap between the two, or no overlap at all can be a good thing. If you’re a spanish speaking healthcare professional and you’re podcast is about spanish in the medical setting, you’re leveraging your professional experience and expertise to help share your views with the world. But podcasting can be a fantastic break from your career as well. Maybe you are an appliance repair person, but really love sports. So, you podcast about sports. It’s a way to keep your mind fresh and gives you a mental rest from repairing stoves.
Take a step back
Are you spread too thin, “sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread?” Maybe it’s time to take a step back, take a breath, and make a list. List out all the things you’re responsible for–including time for work, sleep, self care, and time with friends/family–and estimate the number of hours per week you are dedicating to each. Pro tip: if the total number of hours you’re supposed to be dedicating to everything is more than 168 (the number of hours in a week) it’s time to scale back. Now that you’ve laid it out, are there any areas out of alignment, especially when compared to the amazing, measurable goals you’ve set forth? Yes? Better get to work realigning.
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Of course, there are tons of tips for balancing a podcast and a career. These are just a few. How do you balance your podcast and your career? Sound off in the comments or on social– someone else might be wondering how to do something you’ve already figured out!