Hustle culture was soooo 2010s. Problem is, it can be bad for your physical, mental, and emotional health. A lot of folks are figuring that out now, so things appear to be balancing out into less hustle. But there are things you can do to bring some work/life balance back into your existence, both in your job and as you’re looking for new jobs. In fact, this is such an important topic – lucky you! – that you’re getting a sixth fast fact on this one! 🍀
Here are Six Fast Facts on reducing hustle:
- 🔍 Hustle Less - Being “always on” and feeling pressure from time scarcity is draining, and can take workers to a bad place. That’s why things like quiet quitting and lazy girl jobs became a thing! Employers are finally figuring it out, too.
- 🧠 It’s A Mindset Thing - It starts with your mindset. Work is never going to be friction-free, problem-free, or puppies and rainbows all the time, so don’t expect it to be! But hard work – and the investment of energy into meeting new goals and developing new skills – brings far greater satisfaction! Embrace doing meaningful work, and doing it well!
- 🥋 Focus, Daniel-san - It helps to block out distractions. Shut down your email, turn off your phone, ignore those notifications when you need to get real work done. Prioritize your work (with your boss’ input, of course), and then tackle one thing at a time until it’s done. Tailor your workflow to your strengths, and group similar tasks together for effective repetitions. Become a work samurai!
- 🚫 Avoid Hustle Generators - Perfectionism and procrastination can both torch your efforts at reducing hustle. Whether you spend far too much time on something that is already way better than the expectation, or if you’re trying to remember what the heck you were supposed to be doing because it’s been too long, it helps to have a good sense of which tasks you need to put your energy into, when to do it, and exactly how much of it you need to put in! Failing that, your only recourse is more hustle to catch up.
- 🏢 Group Work - “Many hands make light work.” They also kill the hustle! Lean into your team and get some group work going. Spreading a big project around breaks it into much more manageable chunks, and allows everyone to contribute meaningfully without getting fried. It also lets you leverage different people’s strengths to get the best results across the board.
- 💡 Catching On - This idea of removing hustle is catching on. Job postings that suggest better work/life balance are almost 9% of all postings, a 356% increase since 2018. Job postings that suggest embracing the hustle are down 5%. As you do your job search, look for keywords like “work hard, play hard” (more hustle), “structured office hours” (less hustle) to help you decide which jobs are a better fit for what you’re seeking, and ask culture questions in interviews. Be your very own Sherlock!
🔥Bottom line: The key is to find the right fit for you. If you want to hustle, go for it! But right now a lot of people don’t. That doesn’t mean they’re not willing to work hard, they’re just looking for better overall balance. If that describes you, you may have to be willing to compromise - if you’d take less money for more flexibility, see if your prospective employer would go for it. For most people, less hustle means more happiness, and that’s not only good for the worker, but also for the employer.
What’s your best hustle-reducing advice?
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