Slow Down, to Go Faster
Why hustling does not help you make real progress
Hustle culture. First it was a verb, “to hustle”, then it became a requirement, “sometimes you have to hustle”, and now, it’s a culture. Or so they think.
Actually, it’s a mix of exploitation, stress, and believing “more work” equals “more progress”.
All of them are bad.
My story to where I am now
Let me tell you my experience as a young person (millennial if you want): When I started my undergrad, in the first lecture, the professor told us to look left and right. In about one year, only one of them would be sitting there. And he was right. The first terms were study-shifts from going to university at around 8am to coming home at around 11pm (often later). Every day, I came home tired and exhausted. I told myself: “Hey, it can only get better!”. But it didn’t for another year. After that, it got better fortunately. Eventually, I went through the final exams of my masters. It was at that time, that something in me got over-stretched. For the first time in my life I had black-outs during oral exams. In the following two years, I basically stumbled through a burn-out.
When I look back at those years, I always say, they feel like a black hole. Sure, there are some good memories, but the big chunk of time invested into studying is just, well, gone. I was hustling through that program, and what did I get out of it? A degree, ok, but what about life? Not as much as I hoped — especially since I was always told that studying would be the best time of my life…
Finally, after a year of recovery, I decided to start a PhD. But this time, I would approach it differently! This time, I make sure to live.
Honestly, I’m still prone to hustling, just because I have so many ideas of my own that I want to follow. But I did manage to enjoy my life more. And that “more” does not come from working harder — it comes from working less, working slower.
Slow progress is better progress
What is it that we actually want?
Do we want to look like we’re busy all the time? Do we want to work until 10pm every day, maybe on the weekends, too?
No. So what is our goal really?
We have to succeed in our job, true. We want to hang out with friends and family. We want to enjoy our life, have hobbies, relax.
Slowing down helps us in all of them.
Look, I’m working on my research papers. For research, you have to make 100% sure, everything is correct, and you didn’t forget some factors of 2 somewhere, or you used the wrong word. You cannot believe, how often I made the mistake of “quickly” going through a calculation, just to find out, I made a mistake and I have to do it again. So instead of doing it once, slow and correct, I did it twice (or more). It’s unbelievable, how much time goes into correcting errors. Just, slow down! Be careful. Concentrate.
And for concentration, you need relaxation. It’s easy to imagine our mind as a muscle. If you work-out that muscle a lot, it gets tired and needs to rest. Make sure you eat well — for the nutrients. Our mind also needs breaks. If you work heavily on a project, personal or professional, you need to take rests.
“A healthy balance is when you both fill and pour from your cup. When you do things you’ve always wanted to do, or that bring you joy and are just for you — you fill your cup. But when you’re obligated to fulfill mentally, physically, spiritually, or emotionally demanding work that crowds out any time or energy for you to do things that fill your cup, your cup runs dry — and that’s burnout.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in “My tips on burnout”
A great way to rest and fill up your energy, is to enjoy your life! Go out with friends, family. Visit a new place, try new food, find a new hobby. And it’s those activities, that will make lasting memories! This is how you give meaning to your life-time.
Don’t fall into the trap of “just one more hour” of work
“But I have so much to do! I need more time for work!” — No, you don’t.
I make the same mistake over and over. I think I need to work more, I go to a place I think will help me concentrate, force myself to work with the laptop, open that damn program and then — there I sit. My mind is blank. Like in trance, I’m watching people outside walking by. The snow falls so calmly today… “Stop it, get back to work!” I think to myself.
Do you think I did anything productive that day?
Maybe I wrote a few lines of text, but actually, I just wasted 6 hours of my life in agony. Instead, I could have just gone out with my wife, walked through a park, watched a movie. And I would still have had enough time to write more than I did when I forced myself. Add to that the benefit, that I would’ve actually relaxed and recovered my mind and body!
So next time, you are sitting on your work, and you recognize, that nothing comes out. Just stop. Go home. It’s better for you and your work.
If you have no choice, make small steps
Many times, we don’t have a choice, but to work. Maybe we need money, maybe we have fixed working times, maybe there is a deadline. Then we are, unfortunately, not always allowed to take a rest and recover. To my dismay, some people even believe, you have to work until you’re burned out — that’s hustle culture.
So if you are in a place like that, try to make small steps. Focus on the things that are easy to get off your to-do checklist. And take your time doing them. Look out the window. See the trees, the clouds, the water. Breathe in. Breathe out. Take one task at a time, ignore all the rest. Don’t look at the clock. It’s almost a state of meditation. Focus on the now.
A large part of our mental exhaustion comes from worrying about the things yet to do.
If you haven’t done so already, write down your tasks on a to-do list. Then, forget about everything: “Ignorance is bliss”, Thomas Gray
Turn off notifications (if you can). The less you have to keep in your mind, the more space it has to relax. Make one step at a time. If a step is too large, subdivide it into smaller steps. And give yourself a treat after each step. At the end of the day, you will have done more than you think!
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, Laozi, Dao De Jing
PS: I hope you like what you read. If you want to read more of my stories, feel free to follow me here on Medium! Cheers, Felix
