Lessons From Working A 4 Hour Work Day

Image Credit | Sebastian Voortman | Pexels

Do you find yourself working non-stop?  You wake up and go to the office in the morning, but you always end up working late. Once you get home you continue to work, answering emails, taking calls, or putting the finishing touches on a report. When the weekend comes you still find that you have work to do and dive in to complete it putting in several more hours.  You struggle to disconnect on holidays, when out with family and friends, or even on vacation. You are a workaholic.  A Workaholic is someone who compulsively works. Like someone suffering from obsessive-compulsive order, they feel compelled to work. 

The Japanese have a term for overwork. It's called Karoshi. It literally means death from overwork. It might sound unrealistic to work yourself to death, but that's not far-fetched. Failure to take time for rest and recovery can lead to several negative health impacts is bad for business, and counterintuitive leads to less productivity.

The good news is that you can actually achieve more by doing less. You can find a path to success that allows you to take time for yourself, friends, and family. Pursue your hobbies while still finding success at work. You can achieve work-life balance and enjoy both success at work and happy life outside of work. Here are lessons I learned from working a 4 Hour Work Day. 

Overwork is Bad for Your Health

Your physical health is directly impacted by overwork. When you work non-stop you don't take time to recover. This leads to several bad habits that hurt your physical health. Working early and late leads to a lack of sleep. Sleep is required to repair your body and mind. You also are more likely to eat take-out food that is loaded with fat, sugar, and salt. This can lead to weight gain and heart disease. You increase the risk of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease when you lead this kind of lifestyle. You don't have time to exercise. A lack of physical activity is well documented to result in many negative consequences. 

Mental health and overwork typically cannot go hand in hand. A lack of sleep has negative physical consequences but also has negative mental consequences. Your mind needs sleep to both repairs your body and your mind. When you've had enough sleep you are mentally happier. You also are sharper and more able to focus when you are getting enough sleep. The other effect of reducing your workload is a happier personal life. When you have enough time to devote to yourself and others, you take the time to pursue your personal interests, hobbies, friends, and family. When you enjoy your life outside of work, you are naturally happier. 

Productivity

You can really only focus intensely for short bursts of time. Working head down for hours and hours on end simply doesn't work. Over time you begin to become stressed and start to slow down. While you think that your continued focus is leading to increased productivity you actually end up achieving less. It is more effective to work hard for short bursts and then take a break. In exercise, this is called High-Intensity Interval Training. There is a direct correlation to your professional life. Like the training method, work hard for a short burst, then take a break before going back to hard work. 

One of the most important things you can do to improve yourself, the value you bring to your organization, and your own professional marketability is to improve your skillset. The more skills you possess the more opportunity you have to add value and improve the performance of your own work and the work of the team you are a part of. When you are overworked you won't have the time to devote to your own development. You will be too buried in work to take the time off and learn new skills. Over time your skillset will begin to fall behind those that do take time for themselves. Your hard work will backfire and actually lead to you being further behind those that worked less. 

Business Success

If you run a business you want maximum productivity from your employees. Employees that are tired or exhausted simply won't be as productive as those that come to work fresh and ready to work. When teams work a grueling schedule they begin to slow down. While they can initially work hard and at a high level of productivity, they are unable to keep up their maximum pace for a long period of time. however, if your company expects that level of output, the team members will try to meet it but fail. They may be working 10 or 12 hours a day, but only producing 2 to 3 hours' worth of work.

Unhappy employees are bad for business. They often don't put in their best effort. They take more sick days. They are more likely to quiet. When employees are unhappy they also risk becoming disengaged. There are 3 types of engagement, engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged. Engaged employees show up and put in a good effort every day. Disengaged employees show up to work every day, but their heart isn't in it and it shows. Actively disengaged employees are the worst. They show up to work, but will often work against the success of the company. When employees are unhappy you risk them becoming disengaged or actively disengaged. If this happens you have big problems that may not be fixable without replacing the talent. However, if you don't fix the underlying cause of that unhappiness you risk a vicious cycle that will continually result in the same underperformance and need to hire replacement team members. 

How Can You Avoid the Pitfalls of Overwork

Take Time For Yourself

Your health is the most important thing to your long-term success. You can't work if you are on a leave of absence because of complications due to stress. You need to find a way to disconnect when the workday ends. I recommend removing email from your device, getting work only phone number, so people can't reach you when you are out. Turn your laptop off when the day is over and walk away. The key here is to avoid the triggers that draw you back into work. if you don't get calls and texts from work, you don't see slack messages from work, you can't see that email sitting in your inbox, you will be able to more easily avoid the habit of diving back into work when you should be focused on yourself. 

One of the biggest challenges people face is taking PTO. They are worried that everything they've been working on will fall part behind them. It doesn't have to! When you have PTO coming up, be sure to look at everything that you are responsible for. Identify which things will require support while you are out and which things won't need to be addressed. Work with your boss or your peers to find someone who can temporarily take on the list of things that can't be left behind. Next, you'll want to set an out-of-office reply for your email that lets folks know who or where to go for support while you're out. When you do go out, send a note to those you work with and support letting them know you're leaving, when you'll be back and where they can go for the support in the meantime. These three steps will allow you to step out of the business without needing to look at email, work on a project or take a work call the entire time you're gone. You'll come back refreshed and ready to do your best work. 

Learn to Say No

Saying yes to every request that comes your way is a perfect way to both teach people that you don't respect your own time and to ensure that you have to work long hours every single day. You are not responsible for the work of others. It is not your job to go out and ensure that everyone you work with is successful. You must focus on the work that is key to achieving your work goals and only help others if it doesn't take you away from your personal time off and achieving your productivity goals. 

Saying no can seem intimidating, especially if you're used to saying yes, but it's actually easy with some simple tips. Remember that you are not responsible for doing the work that belongs to others. Don't beat around the bush when you want to say no. Come right out and say that you are not able to help. Remember that you don't owe someone else an explanation for why you can't do the work for them. In fact, offering an explanation can lead to them coming back later or asking again. If you say "I can't help right now because I'm working on this project.", they leave an opening for them to say, "Great as soon as your done you can help me!" "I'm sorry, I can't help with that." is a perfectly acceptable response to a request for you to take on another work. You can and should direct to another resource. For example, "I can't help with that, but here is the resource that will walk you through how to best complete that.". This says no and also points the requester in the right direction. Lastly, be honest. Don't make up a song and dance about why you can't help them or why you have to say no. Remember, less is more and you don't owe an explanation. A simple, "No I can't help, try this resource." is always your best bet. 

Always Keep Learning

I schedule time every day for learning and development and so should you. I enjoy taking time to learn new skills and learn about subjects that apply to what I do. For that reason, I don't feel like I'm working. I, of course, am engaging in an activity that is of benefit to my organization so it is work, but it doesn't feel like work. Not only does it not feel like work, but it helps me to perform at a higher level, earn better reviews and make myself more marketable. I recommend you look at your calendar each week and identify an hour or so each day where you can take time to read a chapter in a book, take an online course, or pursue some other learning materials you will both enjoy and benefit from. You and your employer will appreciate it. 

You Achieve More Doing Less

When you are constantly working, head down, you will miss what's going on around you. You won't have the time to connect work coworkers, peers, and people across your organization. You won't' build relationships or find out about new opportunities. You'll simply be the person that works hard and can always be counted on to take on new work. I learned that the value of taking time to connect with others leads to getting the chance to work on new projects, focus groups or simply join meetings that you might not otherwise be a part of. This improves your reputation and your value to your organization. You have greater influence and greater visibility. This can lead to more opportunities for advancement within your organization as well. 

You Are Simply Happier

Early in my career, I said yes to every task that came my way. I worked non-stop. Every day I started early and every night I worked late. I was on the phone, texts, slack, and my email every weekend and even took my work laptop on family vacations so I could be sure nothing would be missed. The sad part was that I was missing everything going on around me. When I realized this and made the changes necessary to separate work and personal life I achieved a great balance between the two. I was happier keeping them separate. When I was out of work I could focus on my family and pursuing my interests. When I was at work, I was free to focus intensely on the task at hand without feeling guilty about leaving my family behind. I was both happier and more productive at the same time. 

You may be working 10, 12, or even more hours per day right now. If you are, I want you to consider whether you are really doing your best work. I believe you'll find that you can achieve the same level of results or better by working less. You'll be happier and more productive. What do you think? I want to hear about it. Tell me below or contact me!