WORK HAS this strange habit of taking over. It takes over your time, it takes over your space and before you know it, it takes over your life. You are covered up to your eyeballs in it - breakfast meetings, client calls, all-nighters fuelled by fifteen cups of coffee - there is no end in sight. Add to that work pressure, office politics, competitive colleagues, and needless to say, you are treading a thin line between overwork and insanity.
Leisure time is almost a thing of the past - an archaic relic left over from an age that died wearing bell-bottoms and disco shirts. Today, there is no such thing. Or rather, there is, but nobody has the time for it. With Internet and laptops and USB drives, the boundaries between home and work have begun to blur, taking an expected but sometimes unbearable toll on that sacred thing called space. There is never enough time for anything - never enough time to attend school recitals, children's football matches, never enough time to add to your music collection, to paint, to draw, or to do anything for that matter. And, the less time we give to our personal life, the more domestic problems set in, leading to stress at home, on top of stress at work.
Just the facts
Latest employment statistics show that 81 per cent of employees work over 40 hours a week and 29 per cent put in more than 50 hours a week. Apart from damaging physical and mental health, long hours bite into personal relationships too. Moreover, long hours do not automatically translate into productivity. In fact, 68 per cent of people say that their productivity levels have actually decreased. Also, and this is interesting to note, 55 percent say that work-related stress makes them bad-tempered at home too.
Priority - life!
Hit the pause button for a bit. Ask yourself - is work the be-all and end-all of our lives? It is high time we took a long, hard look at what can now only euphemistically be referred to as our `life'. Is work really worth so much trouble? Can we go on living like this? Can we let our home bear the brunt of our work? As professionals, most of us take the utmost care not to carry our personal burdens into office. If so, the vice-versa must hold true too. Professional worries must not be brought home. Tuning out work thoughts is the only way we can cope with pressure and keep our sanity intact.
Deal yourself life's best cards
Most people react with horror at the very thought of such detachment. In effect, switching off in order to unplug our personal thoughts and emotions from our day-to-day dealings at the workplace is a tall order indeed. But, make a practice of it and one day, it will become second nature. Try it like this:
1. Set a limit to the hours that you will work. Make sure that you stop and go home at the appointed hour unless there is an emergency.
2. Adopt a professional outlook and demeanour. Try to delegate routine tasks and prioritise the remaining ones.
3. Schedule your work so that you can complete everything possible within the appointed time. Once you have done all you can, put off the rest for the next day.
4. Learn to say no to extra tasks and shy away from taking responsibility for other people's workload.
5. Once you have stepped out of the office, perish any work thoughts that show up on the radar. As a wise hermit on the mountain said, `let not the laptop be an extension of your body.'
6. Do not let your life be a by-product of your work; spoil yourself for a change. Take out the time to indulge in your hobbies and work out regularly to keep yourself fit and fresh.
7. Build a life for yourself outside of work. Spend time with family and friends and get adequate sleep and rest.
Follow this to a tee and see what a difference it can make. It will get your mind off the little irritants that inevitably crop up in life and help you focus on the big picture. So, no matter what kind of position you hold - whether you are a sales representative or the chief executive officer of an MNC, try and disconnect yourself from the office whenever you can. Not only will it give you freedom from work, it will make you better at it as well.
Leisure time is almost a thing of the past - an archaic relic left over from an age that died wearing bell-bottoms and disco shirts. Today, there is no such thing. Or rather, there is, but nobody has the time for it. With Internet and laptops and USB drives, the boundaries between home and work have begun to blur, taking an expected but sometimes unbearable toll on that sacred thing called space. There is never enough time for anything - never enough time to attend school recitals, children's football matches, never enough time to add to your music collection, to paint, to draw, or to do anything for that matter. And, the less time we give to our personal life, the more domestic problems set in, leading to stress at home, on top of stress at work.
Just the facts
Latest employment statistics show that 81 per cent of employees work over 40 hours a week and 29 per cent put in more than 50 hours a week. Apart from damaging physical and mental health, long hours bite into personal relationships too. Moreover, long hours do not automatically translate into productivity. In fact, 68 per cent of people say that their productivity levels have actually decreased. Also, and this is interesting to note, 55 percent say that work-related stress makes them bad-tempered at home too.
Priority - life!
Hit the pause button for a bit. Ask yourself - is work the be-all and end-all of our lives? It is high time we took a long, hard look at what can now only euphemistically be referred to as our `life'. Is work really worth so much trouble? Can we go on living like this? Can we let our home bear the brunt of our work? As professionals, most of us take the utmost care not to carry our personal burdens into office. If so, the vice-versa must hold true too. Professional worries must not be brought home. Tuning out work thoughts is the only way we can cope with pressure and keep our sanity intact.
Deal yourself life's best cards
Most people react with horror at the very thought of such detachment. In effect, switching off in order to unplug our personal thoughts and emotions from our day-to-day dealings at the workplace is a tall order indeed. But, make a practice of it and one day, it will become second nature. Try it like this:
1. Set a limit to the hours that you will work. Make sure that you stop and go home at the appointed hour unless there is an emergency.
2. Adopt a professional outlook and demeanour. Try to delegate routine tasks and prioritise the remaining ones.
3. Schedule your work so that you can complete everything possible within the appointed time. Once you have done all you can, put off the rest for the next day.
4. Learn to say no to extra tasks and shy away from taking responsibility for other people's workload.
5. Once you have stepped out of the office, perish any work thoughts that show up on the radar. As a wise hermit on the mountain said, `let not the laptop be an extension of your body.'
6. Do not let your life be a by-product of your work; spoil yourself for a change. Take out the time to indulge in your hobbies and work out regularly to keep yourself fit and fresh.
7. Build a life for yourself outside of work. Spend time with family and friends and get adequate sleep and rest.
Follow this to a tee and see what a difference it can make. It will get your mind off the little irritants that inevitably crop up in life and help you focus on the big picture. So, no matter what kind of position you hold - whether you are a sales representative or the chief executive officer of an MNC, try and disconnect yourself from the office whenever you can. Not only will it give you freedom from work, it will make you better at it as well.
PAYAL AGARWAL
No comments:
Post a Comment