Rethinking Hustle Culture, with Ali Abdaal

Headspace Studios. Hello, my name is Ali Abdaal and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday morning. I happen to be guest hosting Radio Headspace this week, and it's so great to be here with you. If we haven't met yet, I'm a former doctor turned YouTuber, author, and most importantly for this session here, a productivity expert. And over time, I've developed a new approach to productivity, all about doing more of the things that make us feel good. And I call this approach 'Feel Good Productivity.' And somehow, publishers approached me to write a book about it. And so I have a book called 'Feel Good Productivity.' Shameless plug. And so this week we're gonna be diving into the principles of productivity that feels good. We're gonna talk about how productivity can actually boost our energy, the cure to procrastination, and how to stay productive without losing steam. This episode is all about hustle culture and how doing more doesn't always produce more. So the whole hustle culture thing is really about the idea that if you just grind it out a little bit more, if you're more disciplined and you have more grit and you just do more stuff, then that is the thing that's gonna get you what you want. And it's true to an extent. It is true to the extent that sometimes you don't feel like going to the gym. And in those moments, it's worth exercising a little bit of willpower or discipline to get yourself to the gym. But I think the issue with hustle culture as a whole and this whole like discipline type narrative of just like, you know, just do hard things, is that if you're trying to sustain yourself through the grind and the grit and the discipline, that's just a recipe for burnout. Like, sure, discipline is good in small doses if you wanna get yourself started on something. But the way we ideally wanna be sustaining it over the long term is by finding a way to make the thing feel good. You know, I managed to get through high school by not having to study too hard. And I was, you know, just doing reasonably well in exams. But then when I got into medical school, suddenly it was like I was being hit in the face because suddenly I was just like very mediocre. And I had to work really, really, really hard to even vaguely keep up with what was going on. And I also didn't particularly enjoy my time at university. And I thought, you know, university's supposed to be the best time of your life. But then in my second year, it was pretty cool 'cause we had a lecture in psychology, which was all about effective study techniques. And immediately it was like this, you know, a light bulb went on in my head and I was like, oh my goodness. Like, how has no one ever told me this...