A Day in the Life of a Job Stacker

Job stacking is the process of taking on two or more full-time jobs. When you accomplish this, you earn twice the salary. It’s pretty much that simple.

At Wade Marketing, we love job stacking. We’re founded by a job stacker and we run a program (our Independent Partnership Program) to help as many digital marketers become job stackers as possible.

One of the questions we get asked most frequently is what a day in the life of a job stacker is like, after “Is Job Stacking Legal?”. When you have more than one nine-to-five, what does your nine-to-five look like?

TL;DR: Pretty much the same, but with added organization, communication, and boundaries.

Start your day right.

 

At 9 am on Monday, your workweek can start. Your main task for the morning is to check in with everyone important and get organized for the day or week ahead.

Take an hour and check your Slack, Teams, Asana, and emails. Respond to as many messages and emails as you can to let people know you’re on the ball.

Next, look at organizing your time. Look at your calendars and map out what your week will look like. If there are overlapping meetings, decide how you’ll manage them – either letting your coworker know ahead of time or coming up with an excuse you can use on the day.

After that, you can craft your day or week to-do list. Make sure you have a handle on all the tasks you’re expected to complete by the end of the day or week. Cross-reference with your calendar to ensure you’ve got the time to get it all done.

At this point it’s around 10 or 10:30. Pick your most challenging task and get started on it before you get into the middle of the day.

Coast through the middle.

 

The middle of the day is typically when most meetings are. While you’re at meetings that don’t require a lot of attention, you can use this time to collaborate and communicate with your coworkers at other jobs.

Stay responsive – make sure you’re up to date with notifications by lunchtime. You can also use this chunk of time to get your more habitual to-do’s done, for example, generating reports or sending canned email replies. Report on your day or week’s progress to anyone who’s expecting an update.

Finally, check back in on your creative/challenging work if you have any extra time.

Finish strong.

 

After your midday mayhem, you want to finish the day off strong. By 3 pm, you should circle back to your emails to make sure you’re on top of them. Update your work calendars and your personal universal calendar you use to keep everything straight for yourself. Make sure to mark yourself as busy during unavoidable meetings for other jobs.

Closer to the end of the workday, have a quick preview of your next day. Get a handle on how you’ll manage your time to get everything you need done.

Finally, and very importantly, sign off. At the end of your workdays, mark yourself as signed off of all your messaging platforms. Don’t reply to emails. You may get emails, and you might get messages but don’t reply to them. You’re already doing a lot of work. Don’t set an additional expectation that you can work after hours, too. You sign off when the day is done, no matter what.

Tips to manage your workload

 

A Day in the Life of a Job Stacker

 

Sound like a lot? Honestly, it is. Balancing multiple jobs is not easy. You’ll need to be more organized and well-prepared than ever before in your life.

If you’re not the kind of person who is naturally in love with spreadsheets, that’s OK – neither are most of us. Here are some tips that can help you design your own system.

  1. Create to-do lists. Paper and pencil, a tool like Taskade, Trello, Asana. Options are endless. Don’t assume you can stay on top of things, because you’re one mistake away from your boss(es) finding out what you’re doing.

  2. Go mobile. One of the best ways to always be available and accessible to multiple jobs is by downloading apps on your phone. Just make sure you set your do not disturb hours to avoid working beyond 6 pm.

  3. Stacks on stacks. Get set up with multiple tech stacks. You may be tempted to try to get it all done on a single laptop, but it’s much easier to keep things straight if you get a new laptop, mouse, keyboard, and mouse jiggler (if necessary) per job.

  4. Get that Monday/Friday feeling. Expect Mondays and Fridays to be quiet, workwise. Use those days to prepare for the busy Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

  5. Go big or get fired. Make sure your computers are capable of handling a lot of work.

  6. Never share a screen. You run the risk of your jobs seeing notifications from other employers. Instead, always share a window or a tab so they can only see what you want them to.

Stay happy and healthy.

 

A Day in the Life of a Job Stacker

 

It sounds a little trite, but it’s true: it’s easier to keep making money, stay on top of work, and remain a happy and balanced individual if you look after your mind and body.

Take extra care to look after yourself. This means eating healthy meals, making sure your desk area is tidy as can be, managing your time, booking PTO if you’re getting burned out, and enjoying hobbies and leisure time.

There are a few ways to make that easy. For example, take meetings on the phone while walking around the block. Avoid big lunchtime meals that will make you drowsy and slow in the afternoon. Get away from your desk on lunch breaks. Log out of emails and messaging platforms when you’re on vacation.

Remember, what you’re doing is not easy. It’s tough. It’s rewarding, but it’s still hard. To keep it going for as long as possible, make sure you look after your number one asset: yourself.

Want a hand?

 

If you’re finding yourself overworked, consider joining our Independent Partnership Program. We help digital marketers take on additional jobs. You can outsource the extra work to us for a fee. Want to learn more? Learn more about our IPP here.

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