We live in a world that glorifies hustle culture. On instagram and across the internet the message is clear: get up earlier, work harder, strive. Many people directly correlate their personal morality with their ability to work hard.
But what if you don’t have any interest in that. Are you getting tired of this dogma of hard work? Do you wonder how Italians and beach bums can enjoy life so much without playing by these rules?
Hustle culture is American but has its roots in European Protestantism. German sociologist Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–05), said that the Protestant work ethic was an important factor in the success of Protestants in the early stages of European capitalism. They believed financial success was a sign god had chosen you for eternal salvation. Believing in predestination, your afterlife was determined before you were born but through success you could show your status.
Essentially hard work was a way of showing inner morality. This tradition from early modern capitalism is still with us. In the United States, founded by Protestants, it has morphed into modern day hustle culture.
Time in hustle culture has been commodified. Productivity software tracks and ranks us. We are judged by the amount of value we create in a given period. From Amazon warehouses to modern law firms productivity is next to godliness.
But hard work does not always equal better outcomes. Some people work smarter, faster, luckier. Also much of what we strive to do is not putting a hammer to a nail, you cannot force it. You could give me all eternity and I could never recreate the genius of the Great Gatsby or Macbeth.
I want to highlight famous figures who live life how they want. They are not beholden to the modern cult of productivity and have found ways to operate that highlight their own skills and best qualities.
Vladimir Putin
Let’s start out with a villian. Because they are Russian state secrets, his routine is not entirely available. But from what we do know, he does not play by normal rules.
According to a Business Insider piece from 2018, Putin likes a leisurely start to his day. He starts his day at noon with a breakfast of porridge, quails eggs and fruit juice. Then he swims for two hours, where much of “Russia’s thinking gets done”.
He starts work in the early afternoon and goes until late at night. His habits are anachronistic, he does not use a computer and does everything on paper in red folders. He has multiple old fashioned landline phones on his desk.
When you run your own super power, I guess you can be a bit eccentric. Also you can make people meet your schedule.
Ernest Hemingway
He was an early riser, but was definitely not an office drone. Writers and artists are often the cliche for being unconventional, but Hemingway managed not worthy productivity while living one of the most legendary lives of the 20th century.
In an interview with George Plimpton for the Paris Review, Hemingway says “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.”
He was light sensitive so Hemingway always liked to wake up early. Writing standing up, he kept notes about his daily word count on a piece of cardboard next to his desk. Some days he wrote more so he didn't feel guilty when he went fishing. (I guess he had a bit of Protestant guilt!).
In his early career Hemingway struggled with writer's block (a feeling most creatives can sympathize with). In his memoir Movable Feast, about his young life in Paris, he says “I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.”
I think the takeaway from Hemingway is that some routine and structure can work for even unconventional lives. He knew he was writer and prioritized his work. He also knew when to relax, and unlink many modern people, knew how to switch from work to play.
Winston Churchill
Churchill loved to eat, drink and sleep. This louche routine did not stop him from winning WWII. Below is his schedule while prime minister, I particularly like how much time he spent in bed.
7:30 a.m: He eats his breakfast and reads the newspapers in bed. From his bed, he continued working, while dictating to the secretaries.
11:00 a.m: He gets out of bed to walk around the garden and then pours himself a whiskey and soda.
1:00 p.m: Churchill has a multi-course lunch.
3:30 p.m: He works from his study, often playing board games with his wife.
5:00 p.m: is nap time! Churchill takes a 30 min nap. This is a habit he says he learned in Cuba.
6:30 p.m: He wakes and prepares for dinner.
8:00 p.m: Churchill eats dinner with guests, with plenty of drinks and cigars. Often they stay up past midnight. Afterward, Churchill works for an hour more before bed.
As you can see, he put a focus on work life balance. Not many modern professionals take multi course lunches, spend the morning in bed, or drink throughout the day. Beyond the vices, he makes time for family and friends.
The crucial thing to understand is that he is successful not in spite of this schedule but because of it. The time spent thinking is when he devised his most novel and ingenious strategies. The long lunches and dinners helped him cultivate the relationships that would aid him during the war.
Churchill shows that what can appear to be sloth often has tremendous value.
Alexis Ohanian
While clearly not as famous as Churchill, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian shows that a modern person can succeed with an alternative schedule.
Alexis likes to get up around 10am, far later than many other entrepreneurs. Also, in an interview with INC magazine he admits, with a refreshing dose of honesty, that the first thing he does every morning is use the bathroom. No yoga or journaling in sight.
Instead of an alarm clock, his cat wakes him up.
Not to say that he is totally oblivious to modern productivity trends. He uses, and is an investor in, Time management App Toggl. He also uses time boxing to make sure he keeps on schedule.
Alexis Ohanian is a perfect hybrid of the bohemian and corporate schedule.
CONCLUSION
We all feel like we should be doing more, but sometimes we should be doing less. Focus and routine are important, as well as time for family and play. Travel and relaxing bring inspiration. All of the guys mentioned above make time for friends.
They realize that you cannot be productive all day and that rest is key for success. In positions of power, both over others and over themselves, they can bend the world in ways that serve them and the broader world.