This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ariba Mobin Khan, a 37-year-old marketing copywriter based in Lahore, Pakistan. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My journey in side hustling started when I took a one-year break from work after having my baby in 2016.
I wrote content for an Indian fashion brand, often with a baby in my lap.
Ten years on, my family has grown, and so have my side gigs. I now juggle three side hustles alongside a corporate job, while raising three children with my husband. It’s long hours and comes with a lot of mental switching, but a mix of AI tools helps me stay on track.
24 hours, 4 hustles
My morning starts at 5 a.m., when I get up to prepare lunch and breakfast for my children and husband.
Then I gear up for my main gig: a marketing copywriter role at a global tech company, a fully remote role I’ve been in for about a year.
This takes up five to six hours of my day, which I squeeze in from 7 a.m. to around lunchtime, between when my children go to school and when I have to pick them up.
The second half of my day is devoted to my three side gigs — writing content for a leather shop and a global digital marketing agency, and freelance articles on parenting and relationships for Business Insider.
My side gigs take up more than 20 hours of my week. My weekend mornings are sacred time for me, when my family is still asleep, and I can work on writing story pitches and any remaining work for my side hustles distraction-free.
About 65% of my total income comes from my main job, while the remainder comes from my side hustles. My side hustles are projects I’m very passionate about. They’re the niches I’m excited to work for, like fashion and home decoration.
Using a mix of AI tools to keep me organized
I rely on a mix of AI tools to help me with my side gigs and to keep myself on task.
For organization and task tracking, I use Trello and Notion, which help me with content management, because all my jobs involve writing.
Next on the list are Claude and Google Gemini, both of which I have paid subscriptions to. Claude works great for research and for helping me maintain a certain tone of voice in my writing.
Gemini is great for injecting creativity into content, like when I’m writing a press release and need ideas for news angles.
And finally, Grok is good for research and weeding out inaccuracies in writing. It’s useful when you need a quick verification of facts and proofreading.
I’m careful not to use AI much for writing, because it spins content that’s already been published. Fresh perspectives and creativity are important for freelance writers.
I use AI for things like writing social media captions, rather than longer-form content.
Being layoff-proof is worth the effort
In 2023, I learned why putting all my eggs in one basket was a fatal mistake.
I was working freelance for a European marketing agency, which paid well. So I let go of all my other side hustles and focused solely on this job for five months.
Then they suddenly let go of their whole freelance team. I had nothing to work on for those few months, which was very hard because my income contributes to the household budget. Our savings were drying up.
Now, having side hustles has given me financial stability. I know that even if I lose one gig, I won’t have dry months with zero income.
Overworking and operating at a high capacity are intentional choices. But there are definitely times when I feel like I’m overworking and burned out.
My easy fix: random naps throughout the day. My kids and husband know not to disturb me during my 20-30-minute naps, which help me get my mojo back.
Unexpected benefits for children
What makes me really happy is that my kids are getting curious about AI tools, asking me, “Mama, how does Claude work?” or “How do you create those prompts?”
I ask Claude and Gemini prompts via voice chat. From that, my children are learning the balance of AI, like when to use it and when it could kill your creativity. I’m teaching them how to use it for generating ideas, but never for writing.
And they’re also learning that side hustles are important because they will grow up in an age when they will never know the world without AI. So they need to leverage AI to build side hustles and achieve financial stability.
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