There is a common myth that “working harder every day helps forge a better professional future. “This is a myth because, although long working hours can eventually help improve incomes, over time, all overwork does is develop work fatigue and decrease performance in tasks.
Many people see hard work as the path to success. In part, they are right: there is little chance of actually winning unless it is through continuous effort. However, they are wrong that hard work is not necessarily an “overoccupation. “, overwork has been shown to lead to worse results.
“A machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men. But no machine can do the work of an extraordinary man.
-Elbert Hubbard-
The most serious thing is that many discover these great truths when it is too late, when they have already become sick from stress or any other mental pathology, this discovery also occurs when people realize that because of their level of demand, they have lost moments. who will no longer be able to recover and would never have surrendered rationally.
They face a divorce because of their spouse’s emotional distance or realize that their children are older and have never shared an afternoon of games with them, one day they wake up and, when they open their eyes, they are overwhelmed by deep sadness, pain that money or social recognition hardly comforts.
Almost everyone thinks he should work hard when he is young, to ensure a comfortable retirement, however, they soon realize that after eight hours a day dedicated to an activity, the mind begins to wander and disperse. to focus on what you’re doing and sometimes also to get a good night’s sleep.
Over time these symptoms become widespread discouragement, you feel sad all the time, with the anguish of trying to fully fulfill all your obligations and feel guilty about not having everything perfect.
That’s when you get in a bad mood. Everything, or almost everything, bothers you. So you justify your bad mood by telling yourself and others that you’re a serious person, that your goals are too high, and that you can’t spend the rest of your life smiling at all. losers for this,” he adds.
You feel that soon there will be time for your personal life, the opportunity is here and now and you can’t let it go, of course you have to make sacrifices, but depending on your goals, it’s worth it, without realizing it. , you are part of a production team and you change your health and happiness for money. Money you think you can use when you no longer have the youth to do it.
According to a bannai and Tamakoshi survey, overwork is the basis of almost all sleep problems and coronary heart disease. Hard-working people have also been found to tend to be more likely to consume alcohol, develop type 2 diabetes more often, and have an increased risk of burnout syndrome.
Overwork is of no use to you, except for a little extra money at the end of the month, which is not enough to pay for what it does to your physical and emotional health anyway.
The only way out of this prison circle is the most obvious: to work less. The limit of eight hours a day, five days a week, is acceptable, although some jobs require a shorter shift. stress is very high, it is worth considering 6 hours as a suitable limit.
We know, of course, that this is not easy and that in the path of change two great obstacles can appear: first, many bosses will not want the person to work less and second, we must be persuaded that working less is not a sign of weakness, but of intelligence.
You can get around the first problem by organizing your work to fill your path by dedicating the indicated number of hours for difficult jobs and leaving others for simple activities. As for the second, it depends solely on you.
To prevent work from becoming an endless activity that consumes the best moments of your life and harms your health, here are three ideas you can apply: