Meet leading business coach, Vikki Louise, a Feminist Time Coach and reformed Hustler turned “time-hacker” helping women globally to take control of their work week.

With your ‘to-do’ list ever-growing, another email begging to be sent, while the basket of washing waits for your attention: a text flies in, the ‘ping’ sends a jolt of urgency and heat through your body demanding the reply be sent immediately. And you comply.

Welcome to the world of hustle culture. You likely subscribed to this unhealthy phenomenon sweeping through society leaving in its wake a flurry of burnt-out modern women questioning what it was that they unknowingly signed up for.

If this sounds familiar, and you deeply desire a new paradigm to plug into moving into 2023, then it is time to break up with unhealthy hustle culture for good!

As a reformed hustler, who used to work 80 hours a week, I can deeply relate to this narrative and way of hoping to reach success. In 2019, after experiencing panic attacks and getting close to burnout, my attempt to avoid failure by working harder, resulted in the heavy decision to close my first business. It was then that my relationship with hustle changed.

Hustle is defined as pushing and forcing. On the streets of NYC, it means ‘to con’ and I believe we have been ‘conned’ into a way of living and pursuing our goals from a completely misaligned and unhealthy place.

My top tips to free yourself from the hustle:

Detach from reactivity and really focus on how YOU want to work:
When was the last time you asked yourself how you might actually like to work? You need to separate out what you have been told produces results vs what actually does. You can be hustling hard and be very busy without producing what you want.

By shifting your energy and intention to embodying the result you want, intentionally pausing to detach from reactive decisions making and action-taking, allows you to no longer be influenced by hustle culture and stop celebrating the busyness over actual desired results.

One of our biggest fears is slowing down, and what if by slowing down you achieve more and you realize you had subscribed to a way that didn’t work this entire time?

When I let go of the ‘working harder’ narrative and began to embrace true rest, my business exploded and I had my first £219k year in my business.
(I recommend learning the difference between active and passive rest to support your productivity)

Surround yourself with those who think the way you do:
Hustle culture is everywhere. If you truly want to break up with it, be fierce in the curation of an environment that fuels your new way of working.

Who you are consuming is who you are programming your mind to think like!

Think about it, when you scroll your IG explore feed and you are being bombarded with celebratory quotes shouting things like: ‘Hustle Hard and Sleep when you’re Dead’, it may make you feel guilty that you choose an afternoon nap today instead.

However, what if that nap was the thing that spurred new creative ideas and the ability to problem solve at a faster pace because you weren’t exhausted?

You have my full permission to unfollow and implement boundaries where necessary! 

Rest: 
It isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, rest is a necessity for anyone who wants to create sustainable success. It is time to turn off the toxic hustle narrative and the ‘work-harder’ celebrations.

The number one reason women don’t produce the results they want is hustle. Exhaustion is real and it is creating a society of chronically stressed and overworked women. 

More and more rest is being shown as more powerful than longer hours when it comes to productivity. Rest is where growth and integration happen.

We don’t just go to the gym on back-to-back days, over and over again, hoping for big results. Your Personal Trainer will program in rest because that is where the gains are!

Learning to untether from hustle culture won’t happen overnight. Be patient with yourself as you pause and explore new ways of working while letting go of the guilt and self-judgment that often accompanies your newfound love for rest!


Head to vikkilouise.com to join Vikki’s Time Hackers program and subscribe to her Podcast, Hack Your Time, where she Coaches you in real-time to break up with hustle culture and create more time without getting up an hour earlier!