Hustle Culture…is hard! — Lionesses of Africa

by Zodidi Gaseb

How many cups of coffee does it take you to run your business daily? On average, an entrepreneur who drinks coffee doesn’t even have time to count the cups of coffee they’ve drunk per day. Why am I bringing up a delicious, caffeine filled drink and what does that have to do with entrepreneurship? Exhaustion has become an integral part of running a business and we have come to accept that in order to make it in life and be successful, you have to hustle…hard!

Hustle culture has become such an unnatural part of our lives that we celebrate it. There is nothing wrong with hustling. As a millennial mom of two trying to build a legacy, that is all I’ve come to know. That is, until I had my third burnout in less than 2 years and had to take breaks from my business. I was hustling hard. Team no sleep was a constant feature in my life, my eyes were tired of carrying sleepless nights along as dark circles, my coffee cups were accumulating next to my bed, on my office desk, in my kitchen. I was running on empty, and my mind and body were spent. 

There is nothing wrong with hustling. Balance is how you find the magic in the hustle. As the in between generation, the black tax paying, first time graduating, settling in the city to make a living generation, we act as the go between our parents and our children. Of course, working ourselves to the bone is all we know, but is it actually working? 

“Hustle culture carries this overarching belief that the more you do, the more valuable you are,” says Kate Northrup the founder of The Origin Company and the author of Do Less: Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management. In other words, proponents of hustle culture will tell you that “busier always equals better,” and that constant busyness will always lead to more money, prestige, happiness, and high self-esteem. Until you have to take sleeping pills to sleep and big cups of coffee to stay awake. In certain workspaces overworking is expected, applauded, and sometimes incentivized with promotions or raises. I remember when I was a 24-year-old mother entering the job market, hoping I wouldn’t get penalized for being a single mom who had to look after her children. I remember putting in more hours at work, during the weekend and always volunteering to work overtime. It was applauded and I convinced myself that it was the right thing to do. As a society, we congratulate those who work harder and later than everyone else with “employee of the month” posts, whilst those who choose to go home and be with family are the heavy workloads were denied promotions and marginalized among their peers.

While hustle culture glorifies overworking as a badge of honour, it often sets up an environment of fear, guilt, and shame, especially when you don’t feel like running at the same pace as everyone around you. Research has shown that increased stress levels lead to reduced professional productivity. To produce quality work, employees must achieve personal satisfaction and conscientiousness rather than simply increase their workload. Data has also shown that there exists a positive association between wellbeing and productivity. If individuals are calm and less stressed, they experience improved productivity. So, by putting workers in a constant state of stress, hustle culture is actually paradoxically impairing productivity. It’s also important to understand that this hustle mind set isn’t just isolated to only the workplace, I often see it with women entrepreneurs I coach. Social media can amplify this aspect of hustle culture since we actively engage and subconsciously compare our lives to the seeming “perfection” of the lives of others. 

How can hustle culture affect our health?

One of the biggest fallouts of hustle culture is the burnout that comes with it. You take longer to do tasks, procrastinate because of the overwhelm, end up doing the work twice because of mistakes you’ve made, lose interest, be anxious or depressed and be so physically exhausted that you can’t participate in activities you used to do.

How to break away from hustle culture:

Since hustle culture is very much embedded in work life, entrepreneur spaces, and even some family environments, it can be really challenging to slow down and create new habits for yourself, but thankfully, it is possible to set a new rhythm for yourself, even if it’s just small changes here and there.

• Keep track of your energy levels. Since hustle culture is so normalized, sometimes we don’t even know when our life is out of balance; it encourages us to judge our days based upon how much we’ve done rather than how we truly feel. To get out of that headspace and become more in tune with your inner compass, I would suggest journaling for at least three minutes at the end of the day. Reflect on how you felt mentally, physically, and emotionally. Jot down what went well that day, what didn’t, and what you learnt from it. If after a while you notice any patterns, you can reallocate your time and energy.

• Schedule your self-care days. If you’re used to being constantly busy and you aren’t intentional about crafting out some space for self-care, your to-do list will continue to consume your time and you’ll end up either procrastinating or feeling overwhelmed by work. Having some quiet time can also help you tap into your intuition and get clearer on what’s important to you, rather than just answering to everyone else’s needs or expectations.

• Prioritize tasks and impact. This can help you narrow down on what really makes a difference at your job or with your business. I really recommend doing an 80/20 analysis. Take some time to ask yourself, ‘What 20% of my actions give 80% of my results?’ Once you know that, you can focus on giving 110% on those important things and then give less energy to the other tasks.”

• Boundaries. If you feel secure enough to do so, share your boundaries around work with your team members. For example, make it clear when you are available to answer emails or tell them that it’s important for you to take breaks throughout the day. Setting the tone early can let your colleagues and team members know what to expect from you and minimize conflict.

• Define what “success” looks like to you. What does success look like for you in your career, family life, and in other areas of your life? Basing your ideal lifestyle on what is truly aligned for you (rather than what you see on social media) may help to take the pressure off.

In the end, life can be so much more than just about work despite what hustle culture has to say. While hard work can certainly reap benefits, we can still make more room to appreciate the little things that have us feeling fulfilled.