Hustle without strategy is running fast on a treadmill. Lots of sweat, same view.

Effort feels like progress because it is tiring, and tiredness is easy to mistake for movement. But work only adds up when it points somewhere. Doing more of the wrong thing faster produces exhaustion and a strong sense of deserving better results, which is a miserable combination. The question is never how hard, it is toward what.

Take one thing you have been grinding at and ask what it is actually supposed to produce. If you cannot answer in a sentence, that is the problem, not your effort level. Cut the hours in half and spend the saved time working out the direction first.