I've been working every Saturday for the past 7 months to get my little bakery going. At first it was a 'just until things stabilize' thing. Now I'm wondering if this is just... my life forever. How do you know when a hustle becomes a lifestyle? And is that even a bad thing?
Work-Life
Working weekends: temporary hustle or permanent lifestyle?
7 months? That's a pregnancy. Maybe you're giving birth to a real business. Give it another 2-3 months and reassess.
I think the question is backwards. Most people working weekends are doing it because they have to, not because they're choosing a 'lifestyle.' If you're actually enjoying the bakery, that's a different story.
I worked weekends for 2 years straight when I started my landscaping gig. It was miserable but I wouldn't have survived otherwise. Now I only do Saturdays during spring rush. It was temporary. But I never thought of it as 'a lifestyle' - just a phase I had to get through.
Yeah I definitely don't hate it. Saturdays are actually my best slaes days. That's the weird part - I make more on one Saturday than I do Mon-Wed combined.
lol my weekends have been 'Tuesdays' for so long I forgot what a real Saturday feels like
Here's the thing nobody tells you: 'temporary hustle' has a way of quietly becoming permanent. If it's been 7 months and you haven't set a specific goal or end Date, it's already permanent. You just haven't admitted it yet. Not saying that's bad, just saying be honest with yourself.
I burned out on the 7-day-a-week thing. Took me 2 years to recover. Please don't do what I did.
Are you at least taking one full day off? Because here's the thing - if you're Gonna be open on Saturdays, you need to be equally intentional about taking Sundays or Mondays off. Otherwise you're just trading one grind for another. I've seen so many people do this 'temporary hustle' and they don't take their rest days seriously and suddenly they haven't had a real day off in months. Then it's not a hustle anymore, it's just exhaustion
I take Sundays off. Mostly.
Mostly, lol. That word is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
I'd say give it a real timeline. Like, 'I'll keep tjis schedule for 6 more months, then I'm re-evaluating.' Otherwise it just goes on forever and you start to resent it but never actually change anything.
Also worth noting - if weekends are still your best revenue days, maybe you should lean into it. Not every business has to be Mon-Fri, open 9-5. Maybe your thing is weekend-concentrated. That's not a flaw, that's just your model.