You’re a hard worker. You’re all too familiar with the pressure of tight deadlines, endless reports, and demanding clients. Your profession requires hard work and dedication…but the line between hard work and OVER work can become blurred. The truth is, that if you don’t see where the line is, instead of making insane gains for all the time you’re putting into work, your productivity hits rock bottom, frustration sky rockets and you end up in a spiral of doom I’ve seen from my clients too many times before. It’s time to re-think our culture of overworking and prioritise “work-life balance” for a happier, healthier, and more productive life.
What’s the probs?
Increased stress levels, decreased immunity, and even depression – just a handful of conditions studies have linked to over working. Chuck all that into a blender and it’s not hard to see why, when we’re constantly working long hours, we’re not able to give our best to our jobs or to our personal lives. Quality in all aspects of life begins to take a hit when we’re working on the edge – we’re irritable moodswinging stress heads with no energy for anybody else, heck we’ve barely got enough time to look after ourselves correctly when we’re in this mess.
In order to break the cycle of overworking, it’s important to establish boundaries and prioritise self-care.
This means setting realistic work hours and taking time off when needed. It also means practicing healthy habits, such as exercise, meditation, and spending time with loved ones. When we’re able to recharge, we’re able to return to work with renewed energy and focus, allowing us to be more productive in the long run.
It’s also important to recognize that overworking is not just an individual problem, but a cultural one as well. Companies and organizations must take responsibility for creating a healthy work environment, but you’ve also got to to go in and stimulate this change by asking for it. Don’t expect someone to initiate a change if they don’t see any benefit from it – if they think everything’s going fine their end, it’s your job to show them why it’s not! So be prepared to approach people with the pitfalls of encouraging a society of over-working AND show them a better way.
How to find “work-life balance”.
Remember that finding a “work-life balance”, doesn’t look the same for everyone. Your best working hours might be different from your colleague’s and so there’s no law that says you need to be working to some blueprint for productivity – because there isn’t one! If you can, observe which times of the day you work best at which tasks and set your schedule up so you’re getting those done. That means you’re maximising efficiency when you’re at your desk, so you feel much better about stepping away from it after a productive day AND you’re much less likely to over-run and end up saying “Sorry love, just one more hour here…”
Whatever balance looks like for you (and remember, for some people that might be working three days a week, for others it might be seven, all with varying hours in between), make sure you identify it, put it into practice and stick to it. And make others around you aware of it too. That way, everyone knows what to expect, there’s no mis-match of expectations and everyone can agree that work and life are being balanced properly.
And if you think you’re struggling to look after your business, yourself, your family and your ambitions, then go check out the Super Human Scorecard by clicking here and get started right away on improving work life balance and your potential performance, immediately!