Learning to Slow Down: Transitioning from Hustler Mindset to Flow State
Recently, I’ve been slowing down my progress and been taking time to enjoy more things in life. After all, life is more than just work, and after going through a 3 month bootcamp and getting my first time job, my instinct was to continue doing what I was doing in committing myself to hundreds of different things in the UX space.
The truth is, I did those things to achieve my goal: to successful transition into UX design. I achieve that goal as soon as I signed the offer letter at my current job, but my mind and body still thought that I needed to do more. While I don’t think this is the end of my journey, I had to constantly tell myself that you accomplished your goal, you don’t need to keep hustling for the goal.
It’s tough transitioning from a hustler mindset to allowing yourself to sit still and relax. After all, I am a dancer and telling me to stand still without me failing is almost impossible. But I definitely need to chill out, and so I wanted to share with you all how that experience has been: going from doing UX-related work almost 50 hours a week to only doing it when I need to do it and when I want to do it (in regards to co-curricular work, not my actual work).
Talking to My Mentors
The first thing I did was talk to my mentors. All of them expressed the idea of slowing down once I got my job, and at first I thought that was some baloney. Why would I slow down when I just started my job? It sounds silly, but in reality, being able to slow down and to celebrate the moment was actually a challenge, and I thought to myself is this how I should be feeling. That’s when I realized something need to change: the fact that I didn’t celebrate getting a job where getting your first job is super difficult.
I took some of their advice and implemented it into my life. I took the first couple of weeks at work to force myself to stop attending events, doing UX work outside of my job, and to just chill out until the projects started rolling. I even started mediating, which is what my mentor Jarell Alvarez recommended me to do. This allowed me to focus more on the things that were more meaningful to me, being more intentional with my actions.
This first step allowed me to notice a shift in my demeanor. Not only did I stop forcing myself to attend events if I didn’t need to, but it allowed me to put more focus into the things that I wanted to do. It was a balance that I was missing when I was in the bootcamp, and it felt nice to not force myself to do just UX-related activities.
Doing More than just UX Design
Something that a General Assembly alumni told me as soon as I graduated was to do more than just UX design. Initially, I thought he meant to do more design work, but in reality he meant to just doing stuff that isn’t related to UX. During my bootcamp, I literally did not but just UX. I would watch UX videos, listen to UX podcasts, read UX books. It was insane, and I noticed that the people around me who weren’t designers were kind of getting concerned if I’m even a human anymore.
And so, after getting adjusted to my job, I finally started doing some of my favorite hobbies. I started snowboarding again, thanks to the indoor snowboarding spot in New Jersey. I start playing video games again, finally dropping into Verdansk with my friends after missing a couple seasons of Warzone. It felt nice, and again I used to think that I shouldn’t be doing this because of the hustler mindset. But after some serious self-reflection, I needed to tell myself that I’m more than just UX design. I’m a person, and people need to do people things, like freaking out about the latest episodes of Money Heist.
Embracing Flow State
The first couple months of my UX journey was all done in the hustler mindset. I did everything when I was in the bootcamp, to the point that some people were concerned if I was doing too much. Looking back, I don’t regret what I did because I was a prime example of immersing myself into the world of UX, and all that work paid off when I got the job at FFW.
But now that I’m in my first job, the same principles that I used during my bootcamp didn’t exactly feel right when I was transitioning into my job. I needed to do something different, and after researching some productivity methods, I realized that forcing myself to do work was not the way to go. I needed to engage myself into flow state, which is when you are the most focused and productive. I did this by implementing several different techniques: time boxing, pomodoro, taking breaks (this is a big one!). I used to literally just work, work work, but now I’m allowing myself to treak a breather and it allows me to just be happier in life.
Living a Happy Life
At the end of the day, I just want to be happy. I am happy, and when I thought I was wrong for feeling like I don’t want to work or I don’t want to watch that UX video, I shifted my perspective. Being kinder to myself and not letting the hustler mindset take over my life was honestly a challenge (and it still is), but going through this transition was much needed, and now I don’t need to stress myself out for feeling like I’m not doing enough.
So for anyone reading this, I want to end this article off with a video. Last week, I ran into a product designer who does YouTube videos, and her most recent one popped into my recommendations. It was how productivity should not be the goal, and after watching this video, my whole mind shifted. It was a reminder that life is more than your job, and it was something that I needed to hear after this crazy transition.
I hope this article was helpful, and if you ever want to talk about this topic of “less is more,” feel free to hit me up on LinkedIn. I love chatting with others and meeting new folks. Hope to see you there and have a great rest of your week!
If you found this helpful, feel free to check out my other articles! Connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to keep the conversation going, and check out my YouTube channel to see me interact with other beginner and senior designers within the community.
Want some mentor recommendations? Check out my ADPList profile and my post on how to look for mentors.
