In the past, I admit that I have been a victim of “hustle culture.”
This impacted me primarily in my first year of university at Laurier.
Upon stepping onto campus as an official Golden Hawk for the first time, I was immediately dedicated to taking part in everything the school had to offer.
This began, of course, with the clubs fair.
I put my name on EVERY list.
Clearly, there was no way that I would run out of time in a day.
OF COURSE I was fully dedicated to attending every club meeting for the 7+ clubs I signed up for.
This, as you can imagine, didn’t go to plan.
No matter how much I “hustled”, there simply were not enough hours in a day to do everything I wanted.
At first, I felt guilty – this must mean my study schedule isn’t intense enough.
Even though I was taking a full course load, I didn’t understand that my brain needed downtime.
Not just from school, but also from everything else.
While participating in a bunch of clubs can be fun, it can also leave you incredibly burnt out.
As an introvert, needless to say I burnt out pretty quickly.
Don’t get me wrong – I love being social.
I love seeing my friends, going out and doing other activities.
However, doing that every day is too much.
In addition, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a Grandma – I enjoy my 10 p.m. bedtime, okay?
Without it, I can’t fully function.
Taking these factors into mind, I began to forgive myself more often when it came to upholding “hustle culture” – who was I trying to impress, anyway?
Now, I like to think that I have a healthy work/life balance (…most of the time).
I have my working hours, log off (usually) right at 5 p.m., and go on with my evening.
Of course, this isn’t always realistic.
There are weeks where I find myself laying in bed at 1 a.m., worrying about work or other life factors. While I know logically that there’s no way for me to fix these issues at that time, my brain loves to worry.
It thrives when worrying.
While taking an SSRI has helped with some of these worrying and ultra productive “hustle culture” tendencies, I’m far from being able to categorize myself as “laid-back’.
To manage things, I’ve tried to start journaling. Surprisingly, this has worked.
You may (like I did), believe that journalling is an unproductive task – what’s the point of writing things out, anyway?
Writing them down, as I’ve learned, helps stop them from constantly repeating in your mind.
So, if you’re like me, don’t worry.
The most we can do is pace ourselves – some days, we may get nothing done. And that’s okay.
So, don’t let “hustle culture” burn you out – take a breath, shut off your laptop, and walk away.