You inherited the hustle—and productivity hacks won’t save you
Stop forcing yourself to fit someone else’s system. Design one that actually fits.
I’ve written and rewritten this Post several times this week, and it kept coming back to this one question:
“Where and how do I start this 4 Day Work Week Experiment?”
There are so many ways to approach this, so many things I could start putting in place.
But there’s one thing I know for sure…
This IS the right thing to do and dive into.
Because once I carefully took the time to make sure this felt right…
Once I committed and told myself, “Alright, let’s do this!”…
All these ideas were coming at me like a fire hose, and I’ve been trying to parse through all that piece by piece in the past 2.5 weeks. Imagine trying to build a dam as a tsunami is coming at you at high speeds and large volumes. It’s been wild, but at the same time, super exciting, as that feedback confirmed this was the right direction for me AND where to take this Substack to help you, too.
Here’s where we’ll begin:
I sorted the common problems into a framework that’ll help us clearly identify where our potential problems are coming from. This creates a foundation we will build upon in tandem.
I’ve created an “environment” or space for us to explore these challenges with less pressure, more curiosity, and ideally, meeting you where you’re at… because we’re all experiencing (and will experience) these different challenges in different stages of our business. Let’s evolve together wherever you’re starting from.
SO! What I’ve uncovered so far is that the 4 Day Work Week Experiment is a part of something bigger—bigger than my and our situation, bigger than this Substack itself.
I’m diving deep into a systemic problem we entrepreneurs have inherited and are now stuck in.
You’ve learned all sorts of productivity hacks. Read THE books on how to work better and “smarter,” promising to help you “do more in less time.”
But after trying all those methods, why are you still working the way you do?
Why do you still feel behind, stretched thin, or pushed to the brink of exhaustion?
The truth is:
You don’t have a productivity problem.
You have a Work Operating System problem.
The hidden pattern behind your overwhelm and burnout
Most people try to change their work lives by tackling surface-level symptoms—trying to find the “right” business strategies to help them grow, tweaking their to do lists, downloading another productivity app, trying to power through with more motivation, coffee, or creating a tighter structure to maximize their output.
But the truth is… that approach only scratches the surface.
If you want your work life to feel different (more spacious, fulfilled, aligned, and with less pressure, stress, and hustle), then the problem needs to be tackled at a deeper level.
Begin with HOW you work.
Not just what you’re doing, but how you do your work.
Why traditional productivity advice fails you
Hustle culture trained you to override your body, ignore your needs, and call it “ambition”. You didn’t build that system, but you did adopt it. And now it’s running your business and YOU on autopilot.
The real problem is that it was never made for people like us.
No, you’re not lazy. You’re not undisciplined. You don’t lack ambition.
You’ve just been trying to thrive inside systems built for urgency, pressure, and external validation.
You inherited your way of working—from hustle culture, from high pressure bosses, from internet gurus selling you strategies that never really fit you.
And you’re tired of all that, right?!
It feels hard to thrive because you’ve been drowning in survival mode, trying to make it all work. Unconsciously, you’ve made hustling your default because you thought that was the only way to succeed, and that’s why you keep driving yourself to burn out and exhaustion.
But there is another way…
Traditional productivity advice tells you to wake up earlier. Work in sprints. Hack your habits.
But it never asks what you actually need.
It teaches you to optimize, not to align.
It tells you to do more, not how to feel better.
It urges you to chase success, not to define it on your terms.
So you end up pushing harder through the misalignment. You override your intuitive signals. You push down your inner wisdom for what others deem is “right”.
And when you still feel tired, stuck, or uninspired… you blame yourself. (I’ve been there waayyy too many times, and that was a good chunk of 2024 for me.)
You wonder:
“Why can’t I stay consistent?”
“Why is it so hard to stay focused?”
“Why does it never feel like enough, even when I’m doing all the things?”
“When will I stop burning out and finally get ’there’?”
Here’s the reality:
Most productivity advice treats your symptoms, not your system.
It gives you one-size-fits-all tools, not teaching you how to make it work for you.
It was built for constantly-on performance, not sustainable peace.
And if you’re a purpose-driven entrepreneur, you’re not just trying to get things done. You want to do something impactful. Something sustainable. Soulfueled. Personal. Real.
So, no, you don’t need more hacks.
What matters more is a better foundation—a way of working that honors your energy, your values, and your vision, not one that guilts you into hustling harder.
That’s the shift. That’s exactly what I’m addressing, exploring, and transforming in the 4 Day Work Week Experiment.
Upgrading HOW you work
Your “Work OS” (aka Work Operating System) is the foundation behind how you typically operate on a day-to-day basis on your work, often without you realizing it.
It’s not just the tools or the schedule you use. It’s the deeper structure influencing your pace, focus, capacity, and clarity. In other words, it’s the full set of elements that shape how you show up, how you feel, and how you function.
It addresses these 3 common problems:
CHRONIS OVERWHELM AND SCATTERED FOCUS - Most entrepreneurs are spinning their wheels because they’re trying to do everything without a clear direction. The Work OS framework helps you define what actually matters… so you can stop reacting and start working with focus and purpose.
SYSTEMS THAT DON’T FIT AND CREATE BURNOUT - Trying to follow generic productivity hacks or hustle-heavy strategies leads to friction, inconsistency, and burnout. This framework helps you rebuild the way you work around your energy, values, and work style… so it becomes sustainable.
INVISIBLE MISALIGNMENTS THAT DETAIL PROGRESS - When something feels off but you can’t name it, you stay stuck in trial and error. The Work OS gives you language and structure to diagnose what’s not working—whether it’s your rhythm, identity, or structure… so you can address the root cause, not just the symptoms.
That’s what this Work OS framework does. This is where I choose to make a difference and help guide entrepreneurs out of hustle for fulfillment, guilt for clarity, and burnout for sustainable peace.
We’re starting at the root—the foundation of how you work—so you can build a life and business that supports who you are becoming, not who you’ve been trying to be.
Together, we’ll explore the 5 core elements that shape how your business functions: Work Life Vision, Work Identity, Work Rhythm, Work Structure, and Work Life Integration.
When you understand these 5 elements, you can finally stop guessing. You can pinpoint the misalignment and shift the right lever to improve, instead of overhauling everything or blaming yourself.
In my 4 Day Work Week Experiment, I’ll show you how I’m actively applying this framework—not to “do more in less time,” but to rebuild my work life from exactly where I am now to how I truly want it to look and feel like.
If you’re craving more peace, more clarity, and more fulfillment in how you work, this is how we begin: Read more about the 5 core elements of the Work OS here.
And that is only the beginning… I gave this bigger vision, purpose, and exploratory space a name, too.
Explore with me in the “Work OS Sandbox”
A guided testing ground to reimagine how you work—through experiments, reflection, and intentional choices… all without the pressure to get it “right” immediately.
It’s a soft, safe space for hard things.
Instead of pushing harder, you’ll experiment gently, rebuild with intention, and grow in a way that feels sustainable, aligned, and energizing. This space honors where you’re at right now, while giving you room to evolve how you work in a way that feels good, grounded, and true to you.
I named it the “Work OS Sandbox” because I wanted to create a quiet, reflective space for purpose driven entrepreneurs to play with possibility—without the noise, pressure, or performance of the loud entrepreneurial “playground” so many of us get stuck in. A sandbox is where you can build, reshape, and test things freely. It’s not about perfection. It’s about exploration. That’s exactly the energy I wanted this space to hold.
The Work OS Sandbox invites you to slow down, tune in, and experiment with how you work best. It’s where you get to upgrade your inner operating system—your habits, your mindset, your rhythms—in a way that supports clarity, ease, and fulfillment. This is an intentional space where you can try new things without judgment, honor your energy, and begin (re)building a sustainable business that actually feels like yours.
By being here with me… in these Posts, I welcome you into the Work OS Sandbox. Read more about it here.
What’s next
Phew~ Now with all these foundational elements laid out, in the upcoming Posts, I’ll walk you through how I’m actively applying this framework inside my 4 Day Work Week Experiment.
You’ll see:
How I’m adjusting each part of my Work OS in real time
The small (but powerful) shifts that are already creating more ease
How you can begin evaluating your own Work OS, too
Next week, I’ll share more about my current workaholic state (which I’m still in and haven’t tweaked just yet) and which Work OS element I’ll be addressing first.
Remember, you’re not meant to work like everyone else. Let’s design your way forward and make your Work OS work for you, instead of against you.
P.S. If this helped you realize it’s not about doing more, but doing it differently, tap the 💜 to let that truth sink in. Share or restack to invite others into a more sustainable path forward.
That's definitely very appealing, to do things more aligned with our style and needs. Often it feels like a balance between pushing myself enough, and not pushing myself too much. It seems like I can't get the balance right, but maybe that is just another form of perfectionism lol.
Growing, evolving, playing, fun, and exploring. Sounds like a wonderful plan.