When looking at the hustle culture around the world, we often see people sleeping 3 hours a night, working endless hours on their "dream" and neglecting most if not all of their social responsibilities to achieve their goals. This has been inbuilt into modern-day society through the power of social media and most of us have fallen into that trap before.
When I first got into the hustle culture I found that it was energizing to work for so long and have a mental verification that I am in fact working hard towards my aspirations. However, working for those long hours can lead to severe drainage and burnout that can often not be fixed. This article is to help people understand the implications of this culture and how you can be involved yet keep your sanity.
The influence of Social Media on Hustle Culture.
When we look at Instagram or Youtube nowadays we often see people saying how they are working late into the night and bragging about it. Moreover, this has been popularized by content creators such as Gary Vee (not disrespecting Gary as I really like his content, but some of the messages that are conveyed may be taken the wrong way for easily influenced people).
With this combination, most people end up sprinting because they do not realise that being successful is a marathon. They copy the people on their social media feeds and work into the night, pulling all-nighters and getting burnt out before they can reap the fruits of their labour. Also, if we look at the general premise of social media, a lot of people only post what they want other people to see such that they paint themselves in the best light possible. With that, someone may post a picture of them working at 2 AM but in reality, they are just watching Netflix. This hinders the ability for us to trust social media and further adds to the point that you should not be comparing yourself to others and getting involved with the hustle culture that they portray because very few are actually doing what they say they are.
How Hustle Culture ate me up.
I remember my daily schedule from February to June of this year being one of the most hectic times of my life, I did the international baccalaureate (IB) and my professional life was 10 times chaotic with almost 0 rewards. A normal day for me would go like this:
- Wake up at 8 AM
- In the office by 9 AM
- Working till 5:30 PM with a lunch break for 15 to 30 minutes
- Get home around 6:30 PM and do some admin work on my laptop
- 7:30 PM I would work on some of my own side hustles till about 2 AM
- 2:30 AM sleep
I did this for 5 and a half months, almost 7 days a week and in July when I decided to leave the job for personal reasons I burnout and could not find my flow again for almost 2 months. Those 2 months would be what I would call "Hell of Earth". For me, my work defines me and when I could not find it within myself to get work done I felt lost. This was also around the time when I was questioning what I would want to do with my life as I was not enjoying college and wanted to find some meaning in my life. Never the less, in September an old contact reached out to me asking if I wanted to help him and that set me up on the right path.
The key take-away from that short story is the effect of burnout on a person when they have been going at 110% for a prolonged period of time. Luckily for me, I had tools and resources at my disposable to help me get back into the working force, but others may not be as lucky.
How to work towards your goals while not being burnt out?
Hustle Culture often says that if you work for x hours in a day you will get to your goals. Now, this is understandable as you must put the work in, but why is it that most of us only look at the quantitative side of things?
Let's say someone brags about working 14 hours a day. Out of those 14 hours, if they are spending 3 hours on Youtube, 2 hours on Netflix and another hour scrolling through social media, they are actually only working 8 hours. That is just like any other job. This is why it is so important that rather than looking at how many hours you worked, look at how well the time is spent.
Limit your distractions and work a manageable size while chipping away at the wall that is in between you and your goals. A more sizable way to work yet be able to longevities the process is to work in 4-hour increments (or less, this is the most you should work at once) and take breaks as you see fit that should be no longer than 15 minutes. If you ever feel that you are getting overwhelmed by it all, it is important to take a breath and come back to it. This is because no matter what, nothing, even your goals, is more important than your physical and mental wellbeing.
It is also crucial to remember that getting to your goals is a marathon and not a sprint. It takes consistency and persistence to get to the end goal that you have set yourself. If you only had to take one thing away from this article, it is to not focus on the quantitative side of your work, but rather on your ability to work on your goals over a long period of time such that you can get to the goals that you want and not have to deal with the heavy burden of burnout.
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Since 2018, Rohan has been working with both start-ups and well-established firms to help them build a spectacular website that is not only eye-catching but also informative. The main style that I have adopted is minimalist. After working in the corporate, 9 to 5 world, I found that it just wasn’t really suited for me and I would much rather work on my own accord near clients to help them deliver on their website dreams that not only attract customers but also give an exquisite brand image.
