Hustle culture is dead. Let’s face it. Especially for women. It’s not practical. When I first looked up the definitions of “hustle culture,” an article said it is about work dominating your time in such an overwhelming way that you have no time to actually live life. Who wants that? 

Not only is that undesirable, but it’s also unsustainable and draining. You will get that life you want, but don’t do it at the cost of your relationships, sanity, or health. It’s ok to go slow and focus on improving in a small way each day. That is exactly what I teach you in this article. I included 5 tips for you ladies to help you build wealth the soft and feminine way. 

1. Focus Blocks Instead of 8-Hour Grinds

Focus blocks go against hustle culture by getting rid of the “always on” trend. Hustle culture preaches being constantly available and reachable at all hours. 

Deep work focus blocks are an effective countermeasure. Cal Newport’s “deep work” theory suggests that by intensely focusing for a shortened period of time, you push cognitive abilities to their limit. 

Instead of spreading your cognitive abilities throughout the whole day and never using them to their full potential, you can work deeper for shorter periods of time and get higher-quality work. 

The science behind time blocking:

• Many studies recommend 60-90 distraction-free minutes since that’s enough time to enter a flow state while preventing cognitive exhaustion and burnout. 
• Whenever you get distracted by your phone, even if it’s just for a second, you have to wait another whole 10 minutes for your brain to become entirely refocused again
• Other research shows that it could take up to 20 minutes to rebuild momentum after a distraction
• If you check your phone twice in one hour, you waste two-thirds of your focus time

This is super important for entrepreneurs, especially since most of the work you do is created entirely by you. You create the structure, the content, and the schedule.

Your work as an entrepreneur is especially demanding of cognitive abilities because you see the project through from the very beginning to the end. It is important to not get up in the burnout-forming demands of hustle culture

Shorter deep work periods challenge hustle culture’s presumption that more work is equivalent to more output. Take Parkinson’s law, for example; this law says that however long you give yourself to do something is how long it will take. 

Work expands to fill the time that is available for completion.  So take this as a reason to give yourself the privilege of working for shorter but more focused time periods. 

The most creative thinkers in history did not constantly hustle. They were smart and dedicated, but they didn’t force themselves to push constantly all year round. 

They used their concentrated effort during their natural energy peak. This is especially important for women because we have different cycles throughout the month. 

Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Time-Blocked Work Session:

• Use the pomodoro technique
• Schedule 90-minute work blocks during peak energy time frames
• Use web blockers to block distractions (I use Cold Turkey). 🙂
• Give yourself time in between sessions to rest and recover
• Sit in a quiet area if possible (I know if you have little kids or siblings, this is especially difficult).
• Put your phone somewhere it is hard to reach

2. Cyclical Planning Is Better than Forced Consistency

Hustle culture demands the same output every single day. “No excuses” is what they preach. Hustle culture doesn’t speak for the fluctuation in our energy levels, hormones, and productivity.  As women, we know how unsustainable and undesirable this is. We could do the same output every single day, but with the way our bodies work, it’s not that easy. This rigid way of operating forgets how women actually work.

The Alternative: Cyclical Planning

As I said earlier, this rigid stricture is beneficial for men but not for women. 

• Women have 4 very different phases throughout the month, each characterized by different hormone levels that affect mood, energy, and productivity. 
• A study that was done nationwide found the productivity decreased by 33% while women were on their periods.
• The types of tasks we do best at vary with our 28-day hormonal cycle

The Four Phases and Their Optimal Task Types:

1. Menstrual (Days 1-5): Low energy, best for reviewing projects, setting intentions, analytical tasks, solo projects
2. Follicular (Days 6-14): Energy is rising; excellent for starting challenging tasks and creative work
3. Ovulation (Days 15-17): Peak energy; create and launch your schedule, presentations, intense workouts
4. Luteal (Days 18-28): Energy is decreasing; best for wrapping up any tasks and doing admin work

Planning work around your cycles acknowledges women’s biological reality instead of fighting it. Instead of forcing yourself to push through low-energy phases, something hustle culture promotes, you align your most cognitively demanding work with your highest energy phases.

 With that being said, recognize the times where you are truly at a low energy period and the times where laziness is emerging. This is an approach that actually feels sustainable, and it prevents the burnout and health consequences that come from ignoring your body’s signals. 

3. Gentle Dopamine Habits Replace Harsh Discipline

There is a life hustle culture sells: exhaustion is equivalent to excellence. I don’t believe that’s true, but the real question is, what are you exhausting yourself with? There are so many distractions in our modern world. Combine all the digital overstimulation with the constant pressure we have to produce, and you create a rush and crash dopamine cycle.

 This rush and crash dopamine cycle refers to a drop in dopamine levels followed by intense periods of focus or stimulation resulting in a wave of fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. 

Slower and gradual dopamine exposure lights up your brain in a calmer and more sustainable way. If your main sources of dopamine come from real-life wins rather than 20-second videos, your brain starts to be more balanced, motivated, and happy. 

Gentle Dopamine Habits Backed by Science:

Natural Light Exposure: Exposing yourself to natural light regulates dopamine and circadian rhythm. Even 2 minutes near a window boosts your mood exponentially. 

Next time you feel overstimulated, get up and go stare out the window. You’ll feel way calmer than if you decided to go on social media. 

Complete Small Tasks: When you do something small like clean up your desk, send an email, or plan out your day, you increase dopamine levels in a calm way, and you strengthen your intrinsic motivation.

Connection Over Stimulation: When you have a real conversation with people you feel good around, that provides lasting and strong fulfillment. It is also one of the most reliable sources of sustainable dopamine.

Move Around: Physical activity increases dopamine receptor availability, which makes you more sensitive to its effects while enhancing mood and mental clarity. 

Hustle culture villainizes taking breaks, even though there is much evidence that suggests regular breaks enhance productivity and creativity while also preventing burnout. Your goal should be to take intentional breaks off your screen and away from any sources of intense dopamine hits. These gentle dopamine habits give neurological support to maintain motivation without ever crashing. 

4. Build Wealth Through Consistency, Not Exhaustive Grinding

Sometimes I feel like hustle culture gives us this false feeling of urgency. Like if we don’t see immediate results tomorrow or if we don’t learn everything we can in a single day, we are doing something wrong. But that’s just unrealistic and false. 

Wealth is built through consistency. How can you ever stay consistent if you’re burnt out?

Let Me Show You The Magic of Time and Patience:

• With a 7% interest rate, investments double every 10 years due to compounding
• If you invest $200 a month starting at age 25, by age 65 you will accumulate $698,000.
• If you improve 1% every day, you will be 37 times better at whatever skill by the year’s end.

Strategies to Build Wealth Consistently

Automatic Contributions: Set automatic deductions for taking money out of your account and then put it in savings or investment accounts

Reinvestment: Dividend reinvestment plans escalate compounding

Dollar cost averaging: Regular fixed investments reduce market volatility impact.

Eliminate high-interest debt: Focus on paying high-interest debts, like credit cards; this impedes your ability to save and invest.

This combats hustle culture since it emphasizes working at a natural pace and focusing on quality instead of quantity. Compound growth in any aspect of life rewards the runner who paces themself, not the sprinter who burns out halfway through the race. 

Starting something whether or not you’re ready and remaining consistent will always stop you from relentlessly grinding yourself into exhaustion and giving up. 

5. A Regulated Nervous System Means Better Decisions

Working long hours increases the risk of bad mental health, such as depressive thoughts, worsened emotional well-being, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, leading to poorer life quality and work disabilities. Working more than 45 hours per week is associated with increased burnout symptoms, which are also connected to increased mistakes. 

If you are in a state of constant stress, your nervous system is always in a defensive state where decision-making quality decreases

The polyvagal theory rationalizes that the autonomic nervous system works in 3 physiological states:

1. Ventral Vagal State (Safety):

• You feel more grounded, mindful, joyful, curious, empathetic and compassionate
• More connection to yourself and the world
• Digestion improves, the immune response is stronger, and there is a better ability to connect to others

2. Sympathetic State (Mobilization): 

• This is where the fight-or-flight response develops. You feel anger frustration (fight) or anxiety, worry, panic (flight)
• Increased blood pressure, heart rate and adrenaline
• Decreased pain threshold

3. Dorsal Vagal State (Shutdown)

• The body shuts down and you feel numb or disconnected
• Freeze or collapse in response to an overwhelming threat. 

The autonomic nervous system makes decisions each moment about safety and survival without us being aware of it. When you are in a defensive or shut-down state, emotional intelligence and decision-making quality are reduced.

How to Apply This to Combat Hustle:

1. Recognize what state your nervous system is in. Pay attention to bodily sensations to identify when your nervous system gets activated. If you feel any symptoms of being in a sympathetic or dorsal vagal state, continue to the next step.
2. Do an activity that helps you calm down. This could be deep breathing, going for a walk, taking a nap, or looking out the window. Just do anything that calms you down.
3. Go out and build social connections. The polyvagal theory suggests exercising your social engagement system helps to regulate your emotional state. 

Based on research done on Gen Z employees, hustle culture harms mental health and employee performance. When you can recognize the state your nervous system is in, you make better decisions. about when you should rest, work, and what truly deserves your focus, instead of being led by a chronic stress response. 

Working in dedicated time blocks is so much more productive than spreading your work out among your whole day. You end up getting the same amount of work done in two hours as you would if you worked the whole day. It’s important to watch things you consume before a deep work session.

Any super dopaminergic content hurts your ability to stay focused. And be consistent. Even if you don’t feel motivated or if you feel doubtful, just doing one thing that has to do with your business, accumulates. 

I want women to live the lives they dream of, but I also want to teach them that they don’t have to cut everyone off, completely isolate themselves, or work endlessly like hustle culture suggests. There is a different way, and that was my goal with this article. 

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