Is hustle culture good or bad? What are the negative effects of hustle culture, especially for solopreneurs… and is hustle culture still a THING? In this article, let’s answer these questions and more!
What is hustle culture?
Hustle culture glorifies “busy work” and relies on toxic productivity as the core tenant: It’s the idea that we should always be working, regardless of what that work may be.
Hustle culture puts “working for the sake of working” on a pedestal, and looks down upon resting.
Hustle culture is often rooted in short-term thinking and it can also be rather ego-centric (e.g. “Look at how hard I’m working!”)...
…And yet, the very curious thing about it is this:
Even though hustle culture is supposedly a prioritization of productivity, it doesn’t actually care about efficiency or producing high-quality work or doing relevant tasks.
Hustle culture prides itself on the “doing” of tasks, without putting much thought into whether those tasks matter or how they contribute to your larger goals.
Is hustle culture bad?
I’m an anti-hustle Productivity Strategist — hustle culture is no friend of mine!
However, hustle culture often DOES have good intentions or reasons behind it:
- You might care deeply about “doing a good job,” and have fallen into the toxic productivity trap as a result.
- You might be the type of person who is very hard on yourself, or you have high standards and high expectations of yourself and others.
- You have negative associations with the idea of resting and taking breaks (you were taught that “taking breaks” makes you lazy).
- You feel guilt, shame, self judgment, or self criticism when you are not working.
- You’ve put so much time and energy into working that you don’t even know what a fun hobby looks like.
Following up on that last bullet point on the above list: I recently had an interaction with someone on Threads who said, “I don’t know what fun hobby time is.”
If that’s something you’d say, too, then I want you to know that you SHOULD know what fun hobby time is.
If you do NOT know what “fun hobby time” is — ESPECIALLY when you are a business owner (as the person quoted above is) — then it’s very important to pause and examine WHY you don’t get to have fun hobby time:
- Is everything that you are currently spending your time on TRULY urgent/important?
- If you are your own boss, why HAVEN’T you adjusted your business model and your systems and processes and strategies to fit your lifestyle?
- What makes you believe that “work” is more worthy of ALL of your time and energy, to the point that you don’t have the opportunity to enjoy fun hobbies?
These are not easy questions to ask yourself.
…But if you do NOT ask yourself these questions, then you’re going to be trapped in hustle culture with no escape.
The only way you’re going to be able to enjoy fun hobby time is if you are willing to explore these questions and make adjustments accordingly.
FYI: I’ve worked with clients who are juggling multiple jobs, clients raising little kids, clients who were hospitalized due to burnout, clients who are neurodivergent, etc — and in EVERY instance, we are ALWAYS able to identify some ways in which they can change their relationship to work and carve out more of that “fun hobby time.”
The magic is in my Productivity Powerhouse framework:
I’m loathe to use black and white, "good" vs "bad" terminology around this, but...
Is hustle culture harmful?
Yes.
Is hustle culture bad?
If by “bad,” we mean, “hustle culture has negative effects and does more harm than good,” then in that case — for all intents and purposes — it isn’t good!
Hustle culture might sometimes have good intentions, but it simply will not get you good results.
Hustle culture is more harmful than helpful.
What are the negative effects of hustle culture?
Here are just a few of the negative effects of hustle culture:
- Poor time management and energy management (yes, toxic productivity makes you spend MORE time and energy working, with FEWER results!)
- Burnout, stress, overloading, and overwhelm (which often means that you are being FORCED into taking a break — and wouldn’t you rather integrate rest on your own terms, before it gets to that breaking point?)
- Poor self talk and an unhealthy relationship with yourself (e.g. you feel bad about yourself for taking a break, you judge yourself or beat yourself up when you don’t do work, etc).
In other words: Hustle culture is not good or healthy for you, for your business, or for the people around you.
It often detracts from your work quality and can leave you so frazzled that you miss deadlines.
Hustle culture might feel exciting because you’re tapping into adrenaline and your heart rate goes up… but it’s seriously harming you (physically, mentally, and emotionally on a personal level — as well as your business health, relationships, and client work will suffer).
Is hustle culture still a thing?
You might be thinking, “But, Sagan… people are starting to talk about cozy entrepreneurship now! Is hustle culture still a thing that I need to be concerned about?”
YES.
Hustle culture is part of the very structure of our society. We’re seeing some changes starting to be made, but at a systemic level, it is woven in the the fabric of capitalism and corporate life — and even the ways we are all taught to think about work and productivity from a very young age.
Even as an anti-hustle advocate and someone who specializes in anti-hustle productivity, I too still get tempted by hustle culture!
Hustle culture examples
Here's what hustle culture temptation can look like...
- Cancelling lunch with a friend, or deciding NOT to go out for a midday walk or take a break from work, because you feel like you “should” continue working.
- An inability to differentiate between “I’m working because I love it so much” vs “I only feel good about myself when I’ve worked a certain number of hours.”
- A compulsion to check emails 10x each day (even though the work you do isn’t a life-or-death scenario).
- Bragging about the long hours you work, or feeling proud of yourself that you’re “so busy” that you don’t have time for anything outside of work.
- Not keeping the boundaries you set with clients and customers (e.g. going out of your way to respond to them in the evenings or on weekends, or over-delivering far beyond the scope of your practice).
It’s wonderful to love your job so much that you get excited about it and you enjoy working on it — that’s REALLY important!
…And also, your work should not be your entire life.
There is so much more to living than just spending all of it working!
A better approach to hustle culture
Now that you know the truth about whether hustle culture is good or bad, you are ready to DO something about it…
That’s where anti-hustle methods and personality-based productivity come in!
Anti-hustle, personality-based productivity starts with YOU.
Quick assessment of whether you need to detox from hustle culture…
- When you overwork (especially to the point where you don’t have any hobbies or fun things you enjoy outside of work), do you believe that it is because you just “love your work so much” that you “don’t want to take a break”? Yes or No.
- Does if feel like you have zero time and/or energy for fun hobbies and a fulfilling life outside of your work? Yes or No.
- Do you (perhaps secretly) feel proud of yourself when you work long hours? Yes or No.
- Does taking a break feel a bit “lazy” to you? Yes or No.
- Are you working with a task list that keeps getting longer and longer, no matter how much work you seem to do? Yes or No.
If you answered even ONE “Yes,” then YOU can benefit from a hustle culture detox.
(Did you answer “Yes” more than once? Get yourself a hustle culture detox, stat!)
You'll do this when you become a Productivity Powerhouse!
Inside Productivity Powerhouse, you learn:
- How to reduce your workload while simultaneously INCREASING your productivity.
- What you need to do to save 10 hours/week, EVERY week.
- How to get more done in less time (AKA best practices to work smarter, not harder).
- A radical new approach to productivity and work that you won’t find anywhere else.
- How to restructure your business model, schedule, systems and processes, etc, to accommodate for your lifestyle and personality.
- What you need to do to break free of toxic productivityand instead become a true Productivity Powerhouse — more efficient than ever before!
Sound good?
Get started now:
