We know that working long hours lead to stress, anxiety, and heart disease, yet we still continue to give our jobs more of our time. So is there a way to manage this fine balance even while working from home?
Here are 3 pretty good reasons on why you should avoid working overtime:
1. It ruins your productivity
By working overtime, you give yourself the illusion of having a lot more time than you actually have.
But if you commit to leaving by a certain, reasonable time every day, it creates boundaries and can motivate you to identify and prioritise the highest-yield work you should be doing.
2. Your quality of work decreases
Leaving work on time regularly means you get to have ‘me-time’ to do things like spending time with loved ones, relaxing, exercising, and exploring other interests.
As long as you keep the work-related stress at bay when you're not at work, all of these things are going to result in an improvement of your work quality.
“While our careers are important, we need at some point to re-examine and re-evaluate our priorities and goals in life.” ~ Ms Sher-li Torrey, Founder & Director, Mums@Work
3. There is no discipline
Leaving on time but still getting your most important work done means you have to be disciplined.
It discourages procrastination which in turn, gives a positive effect on your ability to get the most important work done, which will, in turn, have benefits throughout your job and life.
“Success and wealth become irrelevant if you end up burnt out from over-working.” ~ Mr Paul See, Senior Financial Services Director, PIAS
Not sure how to leave work on time? Here are 7 tips to help you:
With so many tasks and so little time, you need to prioritise and attend to the most urgent tasks first. Even if you can’t work on the items now, you can seek help from colleagues or delegate it to someone else.
Cut down time-wasting activities like daydreaming or chatting on unimportant topics via Whatsapp/ Zoom.
To get work done faster, you need to stay focused. Write a list of tasks you need to complete by today and tick off completed items as you go along.
Ask to be excused from discussions and meetings that do not directly concern you.
“To complete every task at work with shorter working hours was a challenge but, it made me more focused and productive, which made me achieve more than I realised I could.”~ Adeline, mother of 2 children below 5 years old.
Whether you are working from home or in the office, you may experience a family member or a colleague who walks by to chat or a phone ringing in the background; these are just some of the things that break our concentration and make us lose our focus at work.
You can build a culture of respect and negotiate for uninterrupted time. Allocate specific time slots during the day to catch a break, or to return phone calls.
Despite all the best of plans, there are bound to be last-minute emergencies and unexpected scenarios that will force you to drop everything to attend to them.
Very often, we become too focused on fire-fighting and forget to return to the previous task we had on hand until the very last minute.
You can help curb the spark that starts the fire by preparing contingency plans for specific scenarios, like seeking help from a colleague to put out the fire faster.
Remember to return to the task at hand and move on once the crisis has been managed.
Speaking about wanting to get things done but never acting on it just delays the completion of the task and lowers your productivity.
Start by breaking an overwhelming task into smaller, achievable mini-tasks. Get help from your colleagues and staff to help push you forward until you complete all your milestones.
If things get too overwhelming, do not be afraid to ask and accept help from your friends, family or even employer to help you better manage your work-life issues.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. When you achieve a goal you set out to do, give yourself a little treat.
Have a question on work-life balance? Talk to us here!
