You know how babies have that really soft spot on their heads for a while? Their skulls aren’t fully formed yet, in order to leave room for their lil baby brains.

Well, let me tell you about a fun piece of Mom Guilt I still carry around.

I was in my master’s program, studying how to be the best teacher in the gd world. I was taking a full course load, as required by the fellowship I’d landed. But I also needed to work for that bill-paying part of life. And I had a fresh tiny babe.

In hindsight, I cannot recommend all three of these things at once.

To this day, I remember trying to get my little dude to stay sleeping in my lap long enough for me to finishing tapping out this essay before I dashed to my evening job.

When I finally took a breather from the writing and looked down at my kiddo, I saw that I’d been jamming the edge of my desk into the soft spot in his skull. Like, there was a dent.

He’s ok. He’s actually great.

The Mom Guilt I carry is a battle scar from working nights and weekends.

As he got older and I was writing a book or starting my first side hustle, my nights and weekends shifted to mornings and nap times.

That’s the thing about starting your own empire – it takes your time and attention.

When I was first hatching the idea of my business, I got advice about how to know when it’s time to quit your day job. There are a dozen ways to answer this question (future newsletter) but my mentor told me “When your full time job is 100% and your side hustle is 80%, you can walk away.”

This advice inherently means you’re working nights and weekends to get your side hustle up to 80%. You’re tucking it in around the edges of the rest of your life. You’re sacrificing something in order to make a dream come true.

It’s exactly what I’ve been doing the past couple months as I prepped Boost & Bloom.

People can successfully function on shortened sleep, a lack of exercise, and no social life. But only for so long. You actually need sleep, exercise, and friends in order to be creative and thoughtful and ambitious. (You know this, but you try to ignore it.)

If you’re still in the mood to receive unsolicited advice, let me gently suggest that you pace your empire-building.

Schedule the time into your calendar and attend like it’s a class you can’t miss.

When you are there, really – mentally and emotionally – be there. Stay focused.

But only go to class a few times a week. Tuesday and Thursday nights, half of Sunday. Something like that.

See your people. Take a walk. You’ll be better CEO for it. You’re in control here, so set it up for sustainability.

So, what’s your schedule? How are you building your site hustle around the rest of your life? Write to me and let me know.