The Truth About Time: How Christian Authors Can Break Free from Hustle Culture

If we ever have a one-on-one, you’ll discover that I give a lot of input. I love helping people and will pour out an abundance of advice.

Not because I think I know all the secrets of life. I desire to see you living the abundant life that Christ talks about. But one thing I’ve tried very hard not to do is to tell you the best way to manage your time.

Because no two authors are the same.

Every author has different demands and responsibilities. Every author has different support systems and health structures.

It’s unfair for one author to see the perceived success of another and think they’re failing in comparison. So while I won’t tell you how to manage your time, I would love to help you have a healthier relationship with time.

In today’s Heart Chat, I’m sharing what the Lord taught me about time, what hustle culture and scammers have in common, and the one thing you can do today that will drastically impact all your tomorrows.

The Weight of Productivity and the Pressure to Perform

Being a solopreneur in any industry is hard. You bear so much yourself to see your business thrive that that weight can sometimes be overwhelming or even outright crush you.

There’s the constant drive to produce, perfect, provide, and sustain.

The outside world looks upon you with that fine-tooth comb, ready to pick apart all the ways you’re failing, waiting for the moment you throw in the towel just so they can say, “Did you give up on that too?”

For my fellow people-pleasing perfectionist, that pressure to prove yourself is always at an unrealistic level. An unhealthy drive sets in for visible productivity as a way to tactically prove to others that we are successful and that our work does have value.

So the more output we produce, the better we look. Or at least that’s what we think.

And the better we look in the eyes of the people, the higher our standings will be in the book community. That’s the belief, am I right?

Yet that isn’t the truth from God’s perspective. That drive for visible, tangible productivity can be so distracting it consumes your best laid plans. Ask me how I know.

At one point, the need to maximize my output, to be a “good steward” of my time consumed my thoughts.

When Hustle Culture Hurts What Matters Most

I searched for ways to cut distractions and systemize workflows for higher productivity, excelling in my work blocks. However, these so-called distractions were pieces of my life that had no business being categorized as a distraction.

For instance, my daughter asking me for help with school. I’m not proud of it, but at one time, I treated her like a distraction. I homeschool for crying out loud! My daughter should feel safe asking for my help.

But my frustration over being interrupted had made her feel like inconveniencing me was a crime. So she wouldn’t ask her questions, and her grades reflected that.

I was hurting her with my drive to produce.

Or how about my poor dog? When he would bring his toy to me wanting to play, I would growl in frustration that I was losing time.

The poor thing never got any exercise or enrichment. He just lay around bored and not living at all, and that inactivity affected his health.

I won’t go into the details there, but I could have lost my dog because I wouldn’t even be bothered to spend time with him.

So many things became painful eye-openers that I needed to change my mindset around time.

Major health struggles even for myself rose up because I couldn’t be bothered to take the time for a proper diet and exercise. I developed serious issues with my gut health and my lymphatic system.

It’s going to take me years to heal and recover from the damage that I did to myself.

Listen, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a good steward of your resources, but not to the extent of developing an unhealthy obsession with productivity.

Amid my frustration and burnout, God met me.

When the fruit of my labors wasn’t measuring up to my personal expectations, I would get angry.

Angry at myself. Angry at God.

Ready to throw in the towel and concede that I was a failure and always would be.

Until the Lord.

Oh, how grateful I am for His patience and His mercy! He sat me down and spoke life into my tantrum. He spoke two things over me that have changed my outlook on time and productivity.

1. The Fruit isn’t physical

I’ll say that one more time. The fruit isn’t physical. I had been so distracted and focused on the visible fruit and measuring my success rates to what could be seen that the Father had to finally open my eyes to the reality that my greatest output for the kingdom isn’t the physical fruit I produce.

It’s the lives that I have the unique opportunity to invest in with the words I’m blessed to share.

2. Give your time as an offering.

The second truth that the Lord spoke over me about time was connected with the feeding of the 5,000.

[Need a refresher on that Biblical account? Check out John 6:1-14.]

When Jesus saw the magnitude of the people, He didn’t automatically default to stressing over His limitations. He didn’t become aggravated over the lack of resources. His first response when this moment came was to have a heart of compassion.

Jesus saw the people, and His heart was moved for them.

God being God, He provided the resources that Jesus would need to meet the tangible needs of the people. Yet not in a way we would have expected, and definitely not how the disciples would have expected.

Had the disciples been able to financially supply the need in their own strength, there wouldn’t have been an opportunity to showcase the glory of God and thus reveal to the people that God is real and that yes, He does care for them.

If the disciples could have accomplished the task within themselves, i.e. in their own strength, their own power, or leaning upon their own understandings, there would have been no room for the miracle.

There would have been no irrefutable display of God as our Great Provider.

When we look at our resources, we often scoff, similar to how Andrew responded when he presented the lad with his two fish and five loaves.

Andrew looked between the lad’s lunch and the multitude and proclaimed, “What is this among so many?”

How often do we do that with our own resources of time?

We might have an hour or two of deep work time available, but what is that compared to the massive to-do list that’s ever growing and ever evolving?

We look at the magnitude of what God wants to build in and through our writing careers, and we scoff from doubt and unbelief.

[PS, no shame here because clearly I had been in that place too.]

In that place of wrestling, God met me with a much-needed reality check.

When the Lord began this deep conversation with me, I became overwhelmed. I saw the beautiful things God wanted to do. Yet I kept looking at my limitations, convinced there was no way I’d physically be able to produce all of this that God had asked of me.

For so long, I wrestled with that and failed to complete the projects He had asked of me. Doubt kept rising up. The mountain of this business felt unattainable. It felt too big to climb and much larger for me to claim.

I always used the excuse: there’s not enough time, I can’t get it all done.

I kept focusing on my ability to perform the miracle and never gave God the room to do what only He can do.

As it says in Hebrews, Abraham waited for the city whose builder and maker was God. Should we not allow God to be the builder and the maker, and us the participator?

God finally brought me to the end of myself, and He asked me to consider my time as an offering.

We’re familiar with giving tithes or tossing cash in the offering plate when it comes around in church services. Yet have we considered the giving of our time as an offering that God can then multiply for His benefit?

When that little boy with his five loaves and two fishes set out to hear Jesus, he had no idea how God had already prepared him for the miracle that Jesus was going to do through him.

Could you imagine if that little boy had never surrendered his lunch to be an offering God used? That little boy gave freely, unashamed.

He didn’t focus on how he could feed the people.

He gave his offering and believed on Jesus.

I imagine that moment of surrender changed that little boy’s life forever. Just as I know, Jesus changed mine by flipping my mindset regarding time.

First to consider that the fruit isn’t physical, and then to choose to give my time as an offering, freely given and without restraints.

Hustle Culture and the Fear-Driven Scam

This concept of surrendering your time as an offering directly opposes hustle culture.

I had a good chuckle as I learned something about scammers.

Scammers are good at what they do because they’ve mastered manipulating the sense of urgency that causes people to react based on fear.

Hustle culture essentially does the same by convincing authors that they must move harder and expand faster because there isn’t enough to go around.

Hustle culture creates a scarcity mindset that pushes you to make sacrifices you never would have made to reach the top faster than the writer next to you.

Otherwise, there will be less at the top when you finally get there.

All of that is fear-driven, not Spirit-led.

So I ask, do you really have to push past safe and healthy time boundaries because there’s not going to be enough readers for you?

Do you really think God invited you into this space only for there not to be any room for you at the table? This is an example of why I struggle with the concept of saturated markets.

Yes, I get the fundamental understanding behind the term, but we’re creating limiting beliefs that are preventing people from stepping out in obedience to the direct commands God has given them.

How often have you wanted to complete a project or a new marketing technique only to discover that someone else has done something similar, leaving you feeling like what you have to offer is no longer valid or even a good idea?

My friend, hear my heart in this. Do you think God ever made the statement, “You know, I think I have enough preachers. I think I’ll stop calling for more.”

Or, “you know what? I think I’m pretty good on missionaries. We don’t need to bother sending any more out. All those mission fields are good and covered.”

No, God’s not going to say that. If anything, He’s going to say the fields are ripe for harvest, but the workers, the laborers are few.

So if God continues to raise up pastors, missionaries, doctors, and evangelists, don’t you think He values the work that He’s called you to complete for His glory?

Just because someone is doing something similar doesn’t devalue what God has asked of you. Release that book or creative work or whatever beautiful expression of the Father’s heart that He laid upon you to do.

If God has called you to it. There’s room at the table for you to do it.

As you learn more about how God views time, let’s debunk those mindsets rooted in by hustle culture. Those unhealthy mindsets are just scamming you.

You truly do have the time. It’s all about how you use it.

A Shift That Changes Everything: Choose to Live

What is the one thing that you could do today that would drastically impact all of your tomorrows? Are you ready for it?

Choose to live rather than merely exist.

This isn’t a rat race. Constant exhaustion isn’t a badge of honor. God created you with more value than being a task monkey ruled by your to-do list.

I challenge you today to lift your eyes on Jesus and ask him to show you what your time looks like from his perspective.

Let God Redefine Your Rhythms

I’ve shared these scriptures from Matthew 11 before, but it feels so fitting to share them with today’s heart chat.

My beautiful, wonderful, people-pleasing friend, you are more valuable than what you accomplish on your to-do list.

Your days can be filled with joy and productivity when done in a healthy balance as taught by Jesus.

Want to Go Deeper?

If this resonates with you, I want to invite you to pause and reflect:

1. Where have you allowed hustle culture to define your worth?
2. What would it look like to give your time as an offering to God?
3. How might your writing journey shift if you believed God truly multiplies what you surrender?

You are a joy. You are treasured and valued beyond anything you could ever imagine. There is more to life than constant striving.

Let Jesus show you how to live yoked with Him. If you’d like to continue this conversation, feel free to sent me a message via the contact form!

Did today’s blog bless you? Consider sharing it with a fellow writer who’s feeling weary.

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Heart for Creatives podcast (on Apple Podcast or Spotify) for more Spirit-led conversations for Christian women writers.