What Is the Risk of Overwork and How to Control It

Best Practices

Ever have a feeling that you are working too much? And that your life is being carried away with day after day being full of your work life. You aren’t alone. More than half the workforce in the world is going through what we like to call the “overwork pandemic”.

It is a pandemic because it is global and death from overwork in the USA and other nations is becoming more and more common as the day passes. Did you know that employees that work more than 54 hours a week are at risk of health issues and even dying from working too much? Scary, right? 

The sad part of all of this is that we are all very much unaware of the dangers of putting ourselves through this ordeal. And continue to overwork ourselves ’till we are burnt out, in a hating relationship with what we loved to do. 

Before we begin by giving you advice on how to avoid overwork, we will guide you through the negative health effects of overworking so you can grasp the gravity of the situation.

Overworking’s Effects on Your Mental and Physical Health

1. Daytime Fatigue

Certainly, one of the biggest effects on your physical health on overworking is daytime fatigue. When you are working late, you automatically gets disturb your sleep cycle. You push back sleep times and you are up till late in the night. But here is the cache of working too much, you still have to get up in time for work. What that does is makes you tired throughout the day and renders you unable to do your work on time. Thus, putting you back in the vicious cycle of overworking yourself. 

Your back and neck take the most hit when it comes to the health effects of overworking. Certainly, most of the workplaces have not very ergonomical chairs and seating places. This means no proper support for your back and neck. And a constant ache that will ail you for the rest of your life. Try to minimize your sitting hours by not overworking. 

3. Loneliness

It’s no secret that the more time you spend working too much, the less time you have for your family. Relationships need time like a plant needs water to survive. When you spend the better part of your day at work, come home tired and sleepy, your relationship is bound to suffer. Definitely, this will take a toll on your mental health.

4. Bad Habits

With overworking, comes stress. This means that you will be more enticed to drown your troubles in bad habits like drinking alcohol. Now we don’t need to spend time explaining what alcohol can do to your body and your mental health. Another drawback is not being able to exercise and eating unhealthy in the face of long and grueling working hours. 

5. Heart Health

Believe it or not, death due to overworking in the USA is very common nowadays. Overworking can lead to serious heart health issues. It can add to stress and negatively affect a person’s heart condition. Issues such as hypertension are silent killers and killing workers all over the globe. 

6. Reduced Productivity

With all the issues mentioned above, you can clearly guess what the most negative side effect will be. With a hurting neck and back, deteriorating relationships, and sleep patterns, you most definitely will experience a decline in your productivity. The very thing that you thought will make you successful, will be the death of your work-life success. 

So you see, how working too much can have so many negative effects on your mental and physical health. It can ruin life as you know. And you may think we are over exaggerating it right now but you will see that we aren’t.

Let’s look at how you can cope with your overworking habits and reduce them.

1. Take Small Breaks

Whenever you face a day that entails you working extra time than normal, make sure you take small breaks. These can be anywhere from a 15 min coffee break to a 5 min meditation on your desk. You will see how this will reduce the magnitude of the health effects of working. And also give you the breathing space you need to function. 

2. Time Your Tasks

One of the biggest mistakes we make is not timing our work and then getting into the habit of working extra hours because we feel like we haven’t worked enough. The solution is to get a time tracker software to do this for us. Find one with a VPN for PC that will allow you to access the best software across the globe banned in your country by changing your server location. Try a good VPN for windows like VeePN that will offer you a free trial online as well. 

3. Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Have reminders on your desk like family photos and quotes that will constantly let you know what is more important i.e your friends and family, and your mental health. In addition to using a VPN express download, always plan your week in a way that you have enough work and personal life balance. If a week has been tiring at work, make the weekend even more fun and relaxing to balance it off. 

4. Make Routine Changes

No matter how important a work task is, make it a habit to let your supervisor know that you will not be working too much beyond the day end time. Your supervisor can never fire you for not working too late. There are labor laws and you can easily quote them when you force yourself to work too late against your wishes. 

Other small habitual changes can include resting while you are commuting. If you don’t drive to work and use a public commute system, you are in luck with some extra time for relaxing. Close your eyes and sneak in a nap or simply listen to unwinding music as you are traveling to and from work. 

5. Break the Chain

You can easily get into the habit of working too much every day in a row. You need to break this cycle and be mindful not to fall prey to routine. Overworking should be a break from your routine, don’t let it become the routine itself. This will only harm the way you live. Be vigilant and if the overworking culture is taking over your organization, report it and do something about it so that other people don’t fall prey to the health effects of overworking. 

Is It a Good Idea to Avoid Overwork?

Overworking may seem like it is a great way to impress your management and your immediate boss in the short term, but it is the exact recipe for ruining your health in the long run. Working too much can make you hate the job you once loved doing.

You should be happy waking up and going to work and that isn’t possible when the same job drags you down mentally and physically. Take stringent measures like time tracking your physical presence at work and managing your day properly. This can include getting certain software through a secure VPN connection that can allow you to critically examine the time you spend on tasks and present a proper report to your manager detailing whether you need help or not.

Remember, a resource is only useful to a company when they are operating at their best and they can’t do that if they aren’t sleeping well, not eating well, having trouble at home, and not relaxing. So do yourself and your organization a fever and take the time you need to recover from the grueling stress of everyday work routines. 

Tips to avoid overworking and overworking related health issues:

  1. Take small breaks

    From a 15 min coffee break to a 5 min meditation on your desk will reduce the magnitude of the health effects of working.

  2. Time your tasks

    One of the biggest mistakes we make is not timing our work and then getting into the habit of working extra hours because we feel like we haven’t worked enough. The solution is to get a time tracker software to do this for us.

  3. Maintain a healthy work-life balance

    Have reminders on your desk like family photos and quotes that will constantly let you know what is more important i.e your friends and family, and your mental health.

  4. Make routine changes

    No matter how important a work task is, make it a habit to let your supervisor know that you will not be working too much beyond the day end time.

  5. Break the chain

    Overworking should be a break from your routine, don’t let it become the routine itself.

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