Are You On This Planet To Hustle and Grind?

Modern culture seems designed to make everyone less productive. Whether you’re working at home or you're back at the office (or something in between), the 21st century environment is bad for brains.

Anything that’s bad for your brain is also bad for productivity. The human brain gets about 3-4 hours of concentrated thought work each day, maximum. That’s if you fill up the tank with energy at night and avoid draining it on unimportant things during the day.

Not getting enough sleep? You’re not filling up. Not giving your brain enough rest breaks? You’re draining your tank faster. Switching from task to task? Draining it faster. Doing tasks that require focus and concentration during the times of day you know you’re less energetic? Not only draining, but you feel like you’re working terribly hard too. Ugh.

When your brain isn’t operating at its max, it just takes longer to get sh*t done. Which means there’s less time to do other things that are beneficial for your brain. Like hanging out with friends, playing with your friends and kids and pets, doing your favorite hobbies, playing on your fave rec team, etc. 

If hustling and grinding drains your tank, then you’re not as productive. But is that always the case?

Why hustle isn’t all bad

For some people, hustling just means keeping an eye out for opportunity.

Spotting opportunities doesn’t have to be unproductive, though it often is. Bios and articles for those who are either leaders in their field or developed a way to make themselves a lot of money (or both) demonstrate that they say “no” to a lot of things. 

They don’t take their eye off the current shiny object to go chase another shiny object. When you’re launching something, it requires pretty close to 100%  of your effort. (Ask me how I know this!)

Successful people laser focus on the one thing until it’s genuinely off the ground and flying. Then they move on to the next thing. They don’t divide their efforts among a whole bunch of interesting things, but commit to one at a time. 

You’ll find plenty of interesting ideas and opportunities in the world if you look. But constantly chasing new ones means you’re not giving the current concept a chance to succeed.

Some people define hustle as working hard at their business. Not necessarily a bad thing! If you’re trying to make the rent, calling every single person you can think of to buy your product or service is smart. Tiring, maybe, but smart. 

Knocking on every door in the neighborhood you want to work in is hustling. It can definitely be effective if you’re sending the right message to the right audience. Hopefully you don’t have to work like that for very long, because as your clients grow your referrals should grow as well.

Unfortunately, especially here in the US, hustling isn't a short-term effort, and may not exactly be a choice. Worker’s wages have not kept pace with inflation for the past 30-40 years. Living a middle class life with a house that you own and being able to send your kids to college without stupendous debt is out of reach for a lot of people. So they take on additional jobs or “side hustles” to make more money. 

A side hustle that you enjoy and can monetize without losing that joy is great. But most people find taking on side work to get by because they can’t pay bills with the regular job pretty draining. A hobby that you used to do for pleasure but is now required to keep a roof over your head isn’t as much fun anymore.

Some workers choose a side hustle because they want to pay off debt, or want to “retire” early. Most people can’t save and invest enough in a decade or so to live off that money into their 90s. But they can “retire” from a day job they don’t enjoy and pick and choose where to work next. 

In these cases, where you’re choosing to hustle for a short period to achieve more freedom, hustling can be a great idea. Maybe not something you want to do your entire life. Just make sure that your regular job doesn’t start offering golden handcuffs. That’s even worse, when you desperately want to leave but can’t, because you won’t earn anywhere near that much anywhere else.

Some people just seem to hustle naturally, or to enjoy having several balls in the air at once. If that’s you, and it truly does make you happy, try to sync up your shiny object chase so you only have one launch effort at a time. 

Though it’s worth asking yourself if you really enjoy it, or whether you feel like you have to keep busy because you don’t like spending time alone in your own head.

I have a friend with some very bad productivity habits. I’d mentioned that a good (productive)  end-of-workday ritual is to write down the three top priorities for the next day before you leave. She said that all the coaches she’s ever had told her the same thing, but every time she sits down to list priorities, she always has a huge list.

Part of that is probably not properly prioritizing. But some of it may just be personality, and enjoying doing more than planning. If that’s you, you’re still better off focusing your energy. But you might list all your priorities, and decide what’s next in importance. Move on to the next priority when you have a handle on that one. That lets you focus, but also provides room for the multitude of projects.

It also means pulling back (or up) to a bird’s-eye view of the business to determine what to delegate and when. Are you spending time fussing over spreadsheets? Even if you have an assistant or hire someone to design them for you, you still spend all that time thinking about it, giving parameters, troubleshooting the end result, etc. 

It’s easier and more productive to simply pick up an app or software license that takes care of it. I’m a spreadsheet queen, but trust me, technology is often a great improvement on even a well-designed spreadsheet. 

Apps often have more functionality, and they’re less subject to human error. Eliminating human error as much as you can and where it makes sense to do so will also make you more effective.

In short, if you enjoy the hustle and/or you’re doing it in the short term to provide you with more freedom in the long term, hustling isn’t the worst thing you could be doing for your brain. 

I myself am a planner. Which is not to say that I’m not tempted by shiny objects too! But I enjoy stretches of deep, concentrated work. I absolutely love strategizing and planning. I can actually feel the difference when I’m working deeply during my best energy time for such work. 

For planners and strategists, prioritizing is easy. Pick the next thing to work on. Focus on the one project until you get it to where it needs to be to hand it off or sell it or delegate it or whatever. For those who enjoy execution more than planning, like my friend, give yourself the ability to focus but still have other projects you can work on.

Grinding is for pepper

The “grind” implies that you’re not enjoying the work. You might feel resentful that the results of your good efforts are ending up in someone else’s wallet instead of yours. Or that you’re not really interested in what you're doing, but you need to make money. 

Working long hours or combining work with family time may not be such a big deal if you genuinely enjoy what you do, or if it's short-term enough that you won’t burn out. Though as the daughter of a genuine workaholic, I will tell you that you should check with your family first to see what they think about you never being at home!

But what if you don’t love your job? Why are you working 10 hours a day and never seeing your family? Maybe you’re making a decent salary, but is that enough compensation? Why should you bust your behind for someone else? 

If you’re busting it for you and your family, that’s one thing. But if you’re putting in the hours because your boss expects you to, well, you’re more likely to burn out. Plus you’ll be unhappier than you need to be.

The fact is that a lot of people need to work at jobs they don’t particularly care for so they can afford the roof, the food, etc. But to be happy, you need room for joy, happiness, peace, etc. in your life. If your job doesn’t bring joy and you still need it, don’t let the job take over your life. Over a certain amount, money doesn’t bring you happiness. We’re only here for a limited amount of time.

That’s why it’s so critical to be as productive as possible. Not to work 10-hour days every day, but so that you can work less and have more time doing what you enjoy. Make a bright line between work and home. When you’re at home, no work. No email checking. That’s the time you spend for you - with family, friends, hobbies, movement, pets, etc. 

Setting up your brain for success gives you more time to recharge. Why brag about the four hours of sleep you get? Wouldn’t it be better to get the amount you need for your brain to work properly? Then you don’t have to stay late finishing things. Have a big project due soon? Why not tackle it during the time your brain is most ready for that kind of work? You get more of it done more quickly. 

TL;DR (Too long, didn’t read)

OK, this is going to sound crazy, but do the things that bring you joy and freedom. (The hottest of takes! Fresh off the Desert Diva press!) Hustling is good for some, depending on how you define it and how long you do it.

You may need a job you don’t love to pay your bills, but make sure you have plenty of room for life so you can enjoy things even during the years you’re working. Setting your brain up for success fills up your tank so you can squeeze out more in a shorter period of time.

Are you looking to scale up your business but finding that you need your staff to work smarter? Contact me for a free consultation to explore your possibilities.