Avoiding side hustle conflicts with your day job (Part II)

(Part I of this excerpt from Chapter 11 of Side Hustles For Dummies warns you against using your computer from your day job, as well as your day job company's WiFi network, for anything related to your side hustle. Before we move on to discuss more do's and don'ts, this post includes a sidebar from Chapter 11 that describes what I used to do - and still sometimes do - regarding PCs during my days as a traveling consultant.)

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During the years that I was a consulting executive, heading up national or global practices, I spent most of my time traveling for business. Sometimes I would drive; often I would fly. But whether I hit the road in a car or the skies in a plane, I almost always carried not one, but two and sometimes three laptop computers with me.

Computer number 1 was the one issued to me by my full-time employer. I would use this computer for everything related to my day job. Makes sense, right?

Computer number 2 was my personal laptop. For a while it was a bulky Windows PC, but eventually I switched to a much lighter and smaller Apple MacBook Air. I would often spend evenings and sometimes weekends doing side hustle-related work in my hotel room. Everything I did for any of my side hustles - writing, outside seminars or conferences, you name it - was done on this personal laptop…never on my employer's laptop.

And sometimes, a third laptop made the trip with me. Some consulting customers issued outside consultants client-provided laptops to connect to the client networks, or to have access to tightly controlled, sensitive company data.

If I traveled by car, two or even three laptops wasn't a big deal. Flying, though - that was a different story. Going through security, lugging a couple different laptop bags with me and making sure that I didn't accidentally leave one of them behind somewhere in the airport or at the rental car counter…but no matter what, I was - and still am - always incredibly careful to make sure that I do not do any of my personal side hustle work on a computer belonging to an employer. And if that means - well, whatever the opposite of traveling light is - then that's what I did and still do.