Do you miss out on what is going on with your family and friends? Are you working another late night or Saturday afternoon? Does that thought not bother you?
Have you gotten to the point where you look forward to going into work early, staying late, or working weekends. Heck, you’ll work any time, day or night?
If you answered yes to these questions, or you believe you do not need a vacation or a day off from work, you’re probably a workaholic. I’m not talking about a person who is working mandatory overtime or is working some extra hours to pay a bill. I’m talking about someone who consistently works through lunchtime, hasn’t taken a vacation in years, works when they are sick, and goes in to work every weekend and holiday.
As we established in a previous post, being a workaholic can make you physically sick.
Working 50, 60, 70 plus hours a week is unhealthy and takes a heavy toll on our body and brain. If you believe you’re not experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety and stress, take a closer look at how you feel, how you sleep, and how you handle problems each day.
A person needs time to unwind and recover from work each day.
Recovery time not only rejuvenates our body but allows our brains to function at a higher level and more efficiently at work.
Once you make the conscious decision to cut back on your work hours, you may experience withdrawal, just like a person with a drug addiction. Cutting back on work will not feel fun or easy, but only you can make the decision to follow through with separating your workday and your personal day.
These 10 steps will help you manage your workdays and reclaim your personal time:
- Learn to say no! Stop putting too much on your plate and agreeing to anything and everything people ask of you.
- Set work and personal boundaries – stop taking calls and checking emails on your computer or phone after a specific time each night. Just because you’re not available at 10:00 pm one evening when a client calls does not mean you’ll lose a sale. That person may be calling and leaving a message at that hour because they just got home from work themselves. Trust me, they are not expecting you to answer your phone or reply to an email at 10:00 pm!
- Work on your management skills and don’t micromanage your employees. Be OK with delegating some of the work and let colleagues and employees be accountable for the work they are assigned.
- Stop the busy work and fire-fighting activities that are the result of poor decisions due to knee-jerk reactions to make a client, colleague, or boss happy. Often quick decisions are a result of your own inability to think clearly due to tiredness.
- Cut down on distractions at work and learn to focus on the task at hand.
- Schedule leisure time just like you would schedule work time. Schedule a dinner at 6:00 pm Tuesday evening with your wife or schedule a football practice with your son at 10:00 am Saturday morning. You are more apt to follow through when an activity is in your schedule.
- Feel OK with taking a day off on occasion or calling in sick when you are sick. Use your paid vacation days! If you are an entrepreneur and you don’t get paid when you don’t work, then begin setting aside a specific amount of money each week to be used when you do take a day or a week off.
- Try to spend one day each week enjoying family, friends, or immersed in a hobby. If you find a full day of not working too stressful in the beginning, start with spending a few hours each day away from your work phone and email.
- Keep work at work and cherish your time with your family and friends at home. Cultivate your hobbies and enjoy some fun activities.
- Reevaluate your career – you may need to take a close look at what you want in your career. Are you happy with where you are now, where you are going, and the plan you have for how you are going to get there?
Begin by taking small steps. Take a lunch break away from your desk. Step away from your desk for an afternoon break or go in to work an hour later in the morning. Each small step will make it easier to work towards a more reasonable work week.
If you are a workaholic, you may need some serious help to get control of your life.
Workaholics Anonymous is a group support system that will help you recover from workaholism. A formal support group and support from family and friends may be just what you need to regain your personal life.
Are you a workaholic or a recovering workaholic? Please share your experiences for others to benefit from.
Hi, I’m Karen. Welcome to my website! I will show you how to establish the framework for an organized and successful leadership and office management system.
