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Every entrepreneur has experienced hustle culture, which is the idea that every waking moment should be focused on building and improving your business. When you drive alone, it’s easy to blur the lines between work and life, a habit that can quickly lead to burnout. However, post-pandemic people are reprioritizing their work and finding ways to feel and be productive.
Reevaluate the grind
The rise of Silicon Valley tech companies in the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000s has been held largely responsible for the romanticization of the “grind.” Pulling all-nighters and being constantly connected was a way to show how interested you were in the work.
While entrepreneurs are known to be passionate about their work and dedicated to maximizing their time, the pandemic has slowed everything down. The forced suspension gave everyone time to reevaluate how they wanted to approach their work in the future.
Many surveys highlight employees’ willingness to cut pay in exchange for a better work-life balance. Flexible hours, remote working and other personalized perks and benefits have all become part of the norm. This type of freedom is a world that entrepreneurs know all too well but have perhaps forgotten during the growth phases of their company.
It’s good to remember that you don’t have to fill a schedule to achieve goals. And growth doesn’t necessarily mean a slowdown. It’s an intentional look at what works and doesn’t work to optimize your time. As entrepreneurs and the workforce as a whole continue to evolve beyond the hustle culture and appreciate what it means to have more balance, here are some ways to transition into this growth phase and still feel like you’re making strides.
Related: 5 Goal Setting Strategies That Drive Success
1. Plan your time
Like a money budget, look at your overall work time and evaluate where you spend most of it. How much is allocated to administrative work? How much is reserved for meetings? And above all, where are the areas that can be liberated?
By carefully examining where your time goes, it’s easier to spot places that need improvement. For example, an entrepreneur in growth mode might be ready for a virtual assistant or professional services to lighten their load. Hiring someone who can take care of email, track projects, and help with content and social media management can take your business to the next level.
Start small by outsourcing a few assigned weekly hours and add them as needed. Giving up control is a big step as an entrepreneur, but to grow it’s best to ask for help where you can. Delegating specific responsibilities gives you more time to focus on strategy and next steps so you don’t get stagnant in the same work patterns.
Related: How to Achieve All Your Financial and Career Goals
2. Prioritize your health
As a business owner, taking a sick day is practically unheard of since there is no one else to fill in when you are absent. This is why it is essential to take care of your health every day.
Hustle culture has made us believe that work comes before sleep, eating, and exercise. Using caffeine and adrenaline to fuel your system is not a method that will work long term. Practicing the basics of self-care, like daily exercise, quality sleep, and good nutrition and hydration, like drinking water, don’t sound that exciting, but they’re what makes the difference.
These healthy habits will help you think more clearly and function more effectively. Most often, these are the first things to go in the workplace. When, in reality, they are the most necessary things to get the job done.
In growth mode, you need to overcome the scarcity mentality that requires you to work around the clock. Instead, focus on long-term goals, in addition to short-term successes, which involve taking care of your health first. Put it on a schedule and consider it an investment in your work life.
Related: 3 Daily Habits to Protect Your Mental Health
3. Find new ways to expand
Even in today’s world of instant gratification, faster isn’t always better. However, in some ways, the grind may be necessary… but not a permanent approach. It can help you focus and build a good foundation, but the next step is to create processes that allow things to flow more easily.
As your business grows and expands, some tasks should become automated. Look for virtual and in-person care, digital tools and resources to make your life easier. Email, social media, and e-commerce platforms are all part of what creates better workflows.
Hustle isn’t as popular as it once was because we have the technology to do things differently, which works better for you and allows you to branch out creatively and make more authentic audience connections.
Entrepreneurial life is about adaptation. But now the focus is more on adapting to what works most favorably for you. Not joining the hustle culture doesn’t mean you’re behind the competition; the approach is simply different. Overall, the company is entering a phase where quality, personalization and intention matter, so it’s important to recognize where you need and want to grow.