The Hustle and Grind

[Hygro]

There are a lot of commercial endeavors that require a certain kind of work. Some call it the hustle, some calling it the grind, others the treadmill. This kind of work is not like working on a project in which at every step you get re-energized, but rather each step is like starting over. It would be like gaining levels in the more grind-based RPGs, except instead of gaining levels you're working against time to not lose levels.

In short, it requires almost a daily re-commitment to your work, something you could easily keep putting off until the next day (until you fail).

You find this in a lot of industries. Particularly the ones with a potential for massive payout. Brokers like private wealth managers have to hustle to get new clients--especially in the beginning of their career. People in sales, especially for products in which you go to the client rather than the client coming to you, require a constant hustle just to get higher and higher hanging fruit. Those in the arts like music or writing have to keep contacting publishers, venues, record labels, promoters, etc to get their work published. Promoters have to keep up a constant hype and new energy to get people to come to their events.

And the moment you stop is the moment your business starts to fade away.

Does your work require you to hustle? To have to start your game fresh every time you go into the fore? If so, what kind of work is it? What do you personally do to stay motivated? What have you found you can do so that it builds momentum? Have you been able to do anything that causes a sort of exponential increase in success, or is it linear with each step as hard as the last with proportionally diminishing returns?

 

[warpus]

Does your work require you to hustle?

Hell no! My job is very relaxing. 35 hours a week, flex time, lots of time off for holidays, NO overtime ever, 4 weeks vacation..

How do you think I'm able to post so much from work?

What do you personally do to stay motivated?

It's not easy, I gotta admit. My type of work (Web development for a graduate school at a university) involves a wide range of projects.. I'm the only web dev here.. I have 20-30 projects assigned to me that are my responsibility..

If I get stuck in a rut I try to move on to another project and work on that for a bit. That or I walk over to the Student community centre and check out the ladies.

In the end I can't relate at all with people who work 80 hour weeks just so that they can get ahead. That's insanity to me. My work is very relaxed and I almost never take it home with me.

I was in California last year and I hung out with a guy who works for Yahoo.. Work is seriously his life. He wakes up at 7/8, and comes home 7/8 pm. He eats dinner and checks his work mail. He's on call 24/7 and works weekends. DOESN'T get paid overtime. The one thing he does that's not work? He goes out to super fancy restaurants for dinner from time to time.. That is seriously the only non-work thing he ever does, except from a video game here and there.

That is a huge sacrifice.. The guy seems to think it is worth it - he has a nice car, makes a lot of money.. but.. I would never be able to do that. It's insanity to me. You couldn't convince me to work at a job like that if you paid me $200k a year

 

[Hygro]

Another example of the hustle is the job search, where everyday you start over. Downtown had a great suggestion of how to maintain energy and focus during that process: wake up, suit up, get out of the house, and for four hours everyday in your favorite business-district coffee house, research and contact all the firms that you could want to work for. The added bonus was that you drink lots of caffeine (either as coffee, tea, or coca-cola ) staying stimulated and enjoying yourself, while also leaving the rest of your caffeinated day to feel good about your productivity (leading to less burnout).

Edit: Warpus, that's an interesting counter example, and perfectly illustrates the opposite of the hustle. Not only do you have a Frenchman's level of hours, but you have projects that you can jump to, always getting a certain level of external stimulation to help you keep your focus.

 

[warpus]

Edit: Warpus, that's an interesting counter example, and perfectly illustrates the opposite of the hustle. Not only do you have a Frenchman's level of hours, but you have projects that you can jump to, always getting a certain level of external stimulation to help you keep your focus.

I'm quite lucky, even though I could make 20-30% more money if I went to work in the private sector. It's not worth it, IMO.

When I was in the Bay area, I met quite a few people who work insane hours. From what they told me, that is pretty much normal for people who work Silicon Valley jobs.. and something I would never be able to do. What's the point? You end up with a lot of money, sure, but you'll also have no time to spend it.. you'll be stressed, overworked, etc. Not my kinda thing

 

[Patroklos]

Office work is generally like it (I am confused at your inclusion or "arts" as that is usually very prodject driven), where you are not doing anything specifically important but rather a constant wave of minutia.

Every time you take something out of your box someone puts something else in, and it never really gets any less full.

 

[galdre]

For me what makes a job a grind is whether or not I believe in what the organization is doing. When I worked for social services in the UK the work was pretty boring but most of the people really believed in what they were doing and were trying to help so I enjoyed the job. My current job, for a medium sized company, I don't believe in so it makes the work disagreeable, even though the tasks themselves are not any more tedious than what I did in the UK.

 

[Hygro]

Office work is generally like it (I am confused at your inclusion or "arts" as that is usually very prodject driven), where you are not doing anything specifically important but rather a constant wave of minutia.

Every time you take something out of your box someone puts something else in, and it never really gets any less full.

But office work is a place where you get the kind of external motivation to get your work done. So while it can be tedious or somewhat unfulfilling, you are getting the stimulation you need such that you can settle into a routine that is successful. While there's a routine in many successful hustles (aka the getting a job example) it's still a completely self driven process. It's a lot about gaining what you don't have (success) rather than losing what you do have (comfort and/or success).

And while art requires a lot of internal motivation, reread my examples of how it involves a hustle. It's in the promotion of your art that is the hustle. Making music is a joy, trying to get signed to record labels, popularize your songs, and get paid gigs is the hustle and grind.

 

[warpus]

I wonder if one of the reasons why I can't relate to this is that my job doesn't really have routine. Every day is different. It is one of the main things I enjoy about working here.

 

[GoodGame]

All of life is a daily hustle and grind for productivity, fruits of labor, and survival.

 

[Andvare]

The Hustle? You should do it.

You should not, however, do the alternative hustle.

 

[Zelig]

Have you been able to do anything that causes a sort of logarithmic increase in success, or is it linear with each step as hard as the last with proportionally diminishing returns?

A logarithmic increase would be worse than a linear increase.

I'll post a real answer after I think about it a bit.

Another example of the hustle is the job search, where everyday you start over. Downtown had a great suggestion of how to maintain energy and focus during that process: wake up, suit up, get out of the house, and for four hours everyday in your favorite business-district coffee house, research and contact all the firms that you could want to work for. The added bonus was that you drink lots of caffeine (either as coffee, tea, or coca-cola ) staying stimulated and enjoying yourself, while also leaving the rest of your caffeinated day to feel good about your productivity (leading to less burnout).

Searching for jobs is awful, for the vast majority of the time you input, there's absolutely no payoff.

 

[History_Buff]

Hell no! My job is very relaxing. 35 hours a week, flex time, lots of time off for holidays, NO overtime ever, 4 weeks vacation..

Pretty much this. I work 37.5 hours a week, flex time, no overtime 99% of the time (and we get time in lieu when we do), 3 weeks vacation...

And I get paid reasonably well for it too. Easily enough to be upper-middle class here in Canada, though I'm somewhat underpaid for an Engineer, but that's endemic in our industry really.

I hustled my ass in school, now work is pretty relaxing. Staying focused is the hard part. And remembering to write absolutely everything down.

 

[Masada]

Pretty much this. I work 37.5 hours a week, flex time, no overtime 99% of the time (and we get time in lieu when we do), 3 weeks vacation...

Ewww. 36:45 hours a week. Flex time. No such thing as overtime. 6 paid weeks vacation.

 

[Hygro]

A logarithmic increase would be worse than a linear increase.

I'll post a real answer after I think about it a bit.



Searching for jobs is awful, for the vast majority of the time you input, there's absolutely no payoff.

Why would a logarithmic increase be worse? Let's say I found a good hustle that means for every 1 unit of energy I get 2 units of utility. Cool, that's a good, cost effective hustle. But what if I get 2 units of utility per first unit of energy, and then doubles every additional energy unit. That logarithmic increase is superior. I definitely don't mean a sub-linear log!

And yeah, the job search is why it's a hustle! Input with poor stimulation feedback and no payoff. That's most hustles.

 

[Mise]

Mine's kind of like Warpus's. 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch (35 hour working week), although on most weeks I do no more than 10 hours of actual, real work. I have literally done no work since Tuesday. 27 working days' holiday + 8 public holidays, more than enough... (I sell 5 of them every year for extra money). In order to "stay afloat" in the way that you're describing in the OP, I basically have to do nothing. To "stay afloat" requires about 5 hours a week on average of actual work, so an hour a day. That's all I really need to do to keep earning my basic salary.

I have a few things that I need to do by the end of the year (well, I will do, once they've been agreed by my boss), so there's always something to work on. Usually I pull something out of my arse in about September or so, so I'm not too worried. If I do all those things then I get a big bonus, which is cool.

I keep motivated because I'm genuinely excited about those few things I need to do by the end of the year. I set my goals (in alignment with management's targets) as things that satisfy my intellectual curiosity. And I know that if I do everything on the list, I'll get a bonus.


@Hygro: do you mean exponential increase? A logarithmic increase exemplifies "diminishing returns"; I can't think of a better curve to demonstrate what diminishing returns means than a logarithmic one. (A logarithm is the inverse of an exponential.)

 

[really]

There is a lot of routine / grind in my accounting job. Some tasks have to be done every week/month/quarter so if feels like just as you have finished a task you start it again.

Time keeping is quite flexible which I like but I do work unpaid overtime.

Motivation wise I enjoy the non standard tasks that come along where I have to solve a problem or master a new task. I have also been moved around in my roles frequently to fill gaps in the organisation as it is winding down.

I am facing redundancy at some point this year so I might take the opportunity to retrain and try something different.

 

[Verarde]

I don't have a real job. But school is as much of a grind, and I don't mind it because I can see the benefit, unlike so many of my peers. And I'm not meaning to brag. It's true, and it's unfortunate that many young people are going to be shoved into the real world without the capability to work hard. Or the willingness.

 

[downtown]

EVERYDAY I'M HUSTLIN'

Like any office gig, my job has a lot of monotony. I'm a recruiter, so a lot of what I do is either reading resumes, or interviewing candidates over the phone (and those conversations are usually pretty similar).

I get through that by taking frequent breaks (either bathroom or CFC breaks), as well as alternating between different tasks. I have a lot of grind-hustle type stuff I have do, because I have to constantly find ways to get new applicants. Maybe that's a new job board website, or using local unemployment offices, or personal contacts (I do a lot of trolling on LinkedIn), etc. If you stay stationary, you get left behind.

I'm in the process of transitioning out of recruiting, because I don't think I can handle that monotony forever (unless I switched to a commission-based staffing agency). Hopefully my new gig will have varying projects to play towards my ADD

 

[Hygro]

@Hygro: do you mean exponential increase? A logarithmic increase exemplifies "diminishing returns"; I can't think of a better curve to demonstrate what diminishing returns means than a logarithmic one. (A logarithm is the inverse of an exponential.)

Yes, due to some stuff I was reading/watching, I had been under the false impression that logarithmic growth meant growth that could be charted linearly on a log scale, i.e. exponential growth.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Mine's kind of like Warpus's. 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch (35 hour working week), although on most weeks I do no more than 10 hours of actual, real work. I have literally done no work since Tuesday. 27 working days' holiday + 8 public holidays, more than enough... (I sell 5 of them every year for extra money). In order to "stay afloat" in the way that you're describing in the OP, I basically have to do nothing. To "stay afloat" requires about 5 hours a week on average of actual work, so an hour a day. That's all I really need to do to keep earning my basic salary.

I have a few things that I need to do by the end of the year (well, I will do, once they've been agreed by my boss), so there's always something to work on. Usually I pull something out of my arse in about September or so, so I'm not too worried. If I do all those things then I get a big bonus, which is cool.

I keep motivated because I'm genuinely excited about those few things I need to do by the end of the year. I set my goals (in alignment with management's targets) as things that satisfy my intellectual curiosity. And I know that if I do everything on the list, I'll get a bonus.

I'm a boss with P&L responsibility. I try to know what's involved in all the work that I assign to others just so I can improve the productivity of folks like you Mise.

I'd set quarterly goals and have monthly updates. I have one (of 20) employee who likes to play cat and mouse with her time and work. She is salaried so I pay for unproductive time. Just today she "told" me she had registered for a class (not work related) that meant she had to leave early two days a week through May. I'm pretty easy going as a boss, but this is the latest in a six month struggle in which she has tried to reduce her hours. She will lose. I will probably just make her hourly at a reduced rate from her current pay level. Then she can leave early all she wants as long as her work is done.

It is always good to be aligned with management.