Sometimes You Do Need To Hustle.
Over the last few years, there has been a backlash against what is commonly called “Hustle Culture” — burning the midnight oil and working seven days a week to achieve a desired outcome.
Hustle culture is undoubtedly unhealthy and can lead to burnout, yet sometimes, if you want to accomplish something big, the only way it will happen is to put the hours in. Apple’s first operating system and Microsoft Windows weren’t created by people working nine to five hours and resting on the weekends.
These world-changing systems were created by obsessed people sitting in a room, eating pizza, and only stopping when they could no longer keep their eyes open. If you know the story of the Apollo Space Programme, you will see the same thing. Those incredible pioneers were obsessed with putting a human on the Moon and worked sixteen hours or more daily.
People are naturally lazy. It’s how we survive. Our bodies are designed to conserve energy in case of famine or when some predator or danger threatens us. Most of those dangers no longer exist, yet we are still hard-wired to conserve energy. It’s why so many of us procrastinate and put off until tomorrow what could be done today until tomorrow.
If it weren’t for people like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci and Charles Darwin, our understanding of the world would likely not be what it is today. These people were obsessed with their work; if they were not sleeping or eating, they were working.
It’s the same pattern over and over again. Achieving great things takes an obsession and a lot of time. It requires hustle.
Having read the stories of Copernicus, Newton and Darwin, as well as how NASA’s team of incredible engineers and scientists put a human on the Moon, I always find it strange when people today tell me they don’t have time to spend ten minutes at the end of the day to plan the next. Or to give themselves thirty minutes or so on a weekend to plan the following week.
What seems to be missing is a sense of purpose. Those people at Microsoft, Apple and NASA all had a purpose or mission, giving them the energy they needed to push through to accomplish what they did.
You don’t need to burn the midnight oil forever to achieve what you want. But if your email is backlogged, commit to sitting down on a weekend and getting back on top of it. It’s the only way you will get on top of it. If you’re behind on a project and need to pull things together to get it back on track, then work the extra hours to get it on track. No time management or productivity hack that will do it for you. It requires time — extra time — and that’s where you will have to push yourself.
Recently, my wife and I travelled to Ireland to visit my family. Door to door, the trip took 28 hours. That was 28 hours without proper sleep, but we were on a mission — to get to Ireland for the Christmas holidays. When we arrived, we were exhausted and fit only to crawl into bed and sleep. Now, we could have chosen not to go — I mean, it was unhealthy — a lack of sleep, poor food quality (airline food is abysmal these days) and fighting exhaustion. But we went. The holiday was wonderful. Spending Christmas Day with my family was a joy — it was worth the effort.
Sometimes, you have to do difficult things to achieve a desired outcome. What’s the alternative? If you allow that email backlog to grow, you will get stressed. You’ll feel constantly under pressure and will miss important things. That is a lot more damaging to your health long-term than spending an extra two or three hours each day for a week getting it all under control.
Ultimately, it comes back to motivation. If your work is important to you and your career is more than a pay cheque at the end of the month you won’t worry about a few extra hours a week. Those special people at NASA on the Apollo Space Programme didn’t worry about the hours they were putting in or that they often worked seven days a week. They had a purpose and a mission. If you hate your work, dislike your job and resent doing a few extra minutes at the end of the day when required, the problem is with you, which means the solution is on you, too.
Thank you for reading my stories! 😊
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