In this heavily workaholic world we live in, it is easy to get lost in your working hours. Sometimes it’s a project on a deadline, other times the flow is so good you don’t want to stop and before you know it, overtime. This used to be so common in the last decades, when working long hours meant more money, more prestige and faster escalation to the corporate ladder. But is it any good to work overtime?
Working hard is a very vague concept and it could also be translated into very many different exploitations. It ends up mostly meaning “suffer in your personal life, to improve your career”. This work/life balance everybody is talking about now, initiated from this exaggeration: the belief that work is ok to take over other aspects of your life and even your free time. And though we may know how destructive this model of work can be, we still do it. Let’s see why working overtime is actually bad for your career (oh, plot twist!).
Every person has different needs and different limits on how much pressure they can take or how many hours they can work. Six to eight hours of work per day have come to be the average ideal time. But working continuously for way too many hours, no matter what kind of task you are on, will use up energy sources that were not meant to be used that way. And we’re not talking working overtime every now and then, but that constant daily overload of work that never ends.
This process requires energy you can’t revive with sleep or rest. There is one more thing we all need, but we completely underestimate it: it’s called creativity. Don’t be fooled, creativity is not only a trait of designers and artists of any kind. It’s a crucial part of every job. Creativity is ideas, resources, plans, strategies, it’s problem solving. It takes up a lot of energy to be creative and even though creativity can be fuelled by sleeping and resting it also needs one more thing, which is, life!
Sterilising yourself from life, is going to make you so uncreative, you won’t even have ideas after some time. Participating in life, no matter how you choose to do it, is what fuels your creativity. It could be anything you enjoy, from watching a movie or reading a book, to getting on a rollercoaster or drinking beer in a park. Living only in your business sphere, will gradually strip you off of your ideas. Have you ever wondered why young people are full of ideas? Let that sink in.
To have enough time to enjoy yourself and fill your head with all kinds of emotions, images and miracles out there, you need to find this so-called work/life balance. There are people who say “I love my job, my job is my life!” and they really mean it and they are really good at it, but how many times have you seen this category of people burn out or run out of ideas? It’s not a matter of having time to rest, it’s not sleep and energy they are deprived of; it’s life. Motivation and dedication will take you up to a point, but only for a while. Ideas can come from everything around you, but you have to be there to see them. Either you work from home or in an office, alone or with other people, you still need to pause your work routine and engage in other activities.
We live in a world where we need to cooperate with each other. The knowledge we’ve gained through our lives is not a personal achievement, it’s a communal constant effort. We build on the shoulders of everybody before us and the creativity of thousands of years is summed up in what you see around you: life. Corporate life is no exception. Living only through your job is an ignorance that eventually will take you down. Being successful in your field is not measured in money anymore, you won’t be remembered for your wealth but for your resourcefulness.
So leave your work on time. It’s good for your job.
