My professor hands back my test from the previous Friday. I’m a nervous wreck, red-eyed and nursing a cold brew. I crammed until 3:00 a.m. and haven’t gotten more than four hours of sleep in the past week, but as the old adage goes, the grind never stops. My grade is perfectly respectable, but it definitely wasn’t worth running myself ragged. I decide to try a different approach.
For the next exam, I barely study, briefly reviewing the concepts with which I’m least comfortable. Instead of continuing my late-night cramming habit, I make sure to be in bed by ten every night. I end up getting the same grade. I can see it clearly now; my past self was a tragic victim of “hustle” culture.
Hustle culture refers to a system of values that prioritizes productivity and work above all else. Partially rooted in internalized capitalism, it posits that those who expend the maximum amount of time and effort working will be rewarded the most. This is an inherently flawed assumption, but a logical conclusion from a system that values individuals based on the amount of labor they are able to perform. Many of us grew up suffocated by hustle culture and continue to impose it on ourselves because it is all we know. As Smith students, we must confront its ongoing presence and practice a more balanced lifestyle with regard to work and rest.
Smith prides itself on being a place where students can design their own academic path, facilitated by the open curriculum. Hustle culture distorts this opportunity, resulting in the mentality that a fuller schedule will lead to a fuller life and causing students to bite off far more than they can chew. It can be tempting to fill up one’s days with as many classes as one can cram in — sleep and free time be damned — simply because the educational opportunities are so enticing.
But it’s crucial to keep in mind that if one overextends oneself, something has to give. The strain caused by overcommitment can dull one’s academic passion and make all those classes that seemed so exciting at the beginning of the year feel like a burden. In order to actually enjoy and reap the benefits of a liberal arts education, one must preserve the time and mental energy to fully engage with every aspect of it, from classes to social life. Otherwise, what’s the point of the college experience?
Thankfully, hustle culture at Smith is tempered by a shared commitment to collaboration that many other schools lack. The liberal arts approach to education encourages students to explore diverse areas of study before committing to a major, rather than pigeonholing oneself into a rigid track and becoming overly career-focused. However, hustle culture still manifests in an unhealthy obsession with work that pervades our free time. Even when we set time aside to rest, the constant thought that we should be working plagues us, rendering us unable to truly relax. Hustle culture dictates that any time that can be spent working should be. This gives rise to a sense of inferiority when, in comparison, everyone else seems to be doing more. The result of hustle culture? Burnout, restlessness and profound feelings of inadequacy.
To reject hustle culture is to ensure that one has enough mental and physical energy to properly challenge oneself. This can be accomplished by setting healthy boundaries, such as keeping Friday afternoons free, dropping that eight a.m. class or going to bed early instead of pulling an all-nighter to cram for a test. Hustle culture condemns self-care as optional or negotiable, even a waste of time. Once we abandon it, we can stop running ourselves into the ground and actually — heaven forbid — take a break.
