“I am your typical type-A achiever who went from a rigorous high-school to a successful college education and am now in the workforce. I’m in an industry where putting in long hours and being ‘available’ for emails and questions are the norm and I have done well by spending some nights and weekends working to finish projects. I’ve been promoted twice in four years and as my scope grows, so does the pressure I feel to deliver. I am doing okay for now, but am wondering how to differentiate between working hard and overworking?”
- Tentatively Tired
When you say working hard, I picture long hours spent at your computer or on the phone. Hard work is generally manageable, and can be productive. Overworking is a more extreme version - where the time and energy devoted to work negatively impact other parts of your life.
All of us are wired differently and there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how much work is too much. The best way to determine hard work vs. overwork is to look at how you are spending your finite time and energy and determine what works best for you as an individual.
What I suggest is an assessment of the ‘big, important things’ in your life. The first step is to list the top 2-4 buckets that matter right now or in the near future. Get real about it. Not everything can be a top priority at the same time.
Although not exhaustive, a list of major life pursuits that require energy:
Family / relationships
Work
Learning and development
Managing home life
Travel / spending time in nature
Spirituality / engaging in a religion
Community involvement
Physical health and wellbeing, including rest and recovery time
When I say top buckets, I mean the things that you are actively pursuing and putting energy towards. That might look like having specific goals or accomplishments like I want to take my GRE this year or get a promotion. It might mean that you have internal minimums or maximums such as I will have dinner with my family at least 3 days a week or I will spend no more than 1 hour on work over the weekend.
For each bucket you identify as a priority, write down what it would look / feel / be like if you were crushing it. Think about peak travel or an absolutely amazing career and write what that means for you. Dream big.
Next, make an honest judgment of how your life today stacks up against the ultimate vision for those categories. Evaluate how much energy you are expending and how close it gets you to the outcome you want. If you are using considerable energy for work and not reaching your desired goal, that might mean you have drifted away from sustainability.
The areas where you have a mismatch might feel unfulfilling. Think of your energy like fuel for a vehicle. If you put no gas in your car, you wouldn’t expect it to go anywhere. If you put a big quantity of fuel in and rev the engine, you would want to be moving quickly towards your destination. If you fill up the tank and rev the engine but aren’t making any traction - your wheels are just spinning - that is frustrating. And a possible signal that something should change.
As a last step, if there are areas that you are out of balance, make a plan to adjust. You can make changes on either side of the equation - the energy input or the expected output. Play around with different combinations until you find the right mix for your life.
If you find that you are overworked, I’m a big fan of setting boundaries as a way to limit the creep of work into home life. Actually don’t check your work email after a certain time and don’t open it up first thing in the morning. Set limits on how much you will engage, and cut it off when you are spending time but not producing good output. If you do this consistently, you will be more intentional about the time that you do spend on work and likely be more efficient and productive.
And lastly, if after the assessment you feel good about input and output across your important categories (maybe there are only a couple that matter right now and you’re all in and loving it) - great! Don’t feel like you have to change just because others say it’s too much for them.