Don’t Stop Working Until You’re Dead

That seems to be the mentality of today’s society

Don’t rest until you’re dead. Why sleep? You can sleep when you’re in your grave. As for downtime, the less of it, the better. When you’re not working, you’re not achieving. You don’t want to be on your deathbed wishing you’d accomplished more, do you?

This is the current mentality of the society we live in — that, sleeping for the recommended 6–8 hours, or looking after yourself, is nothing more than a waste of time. That, you should always be working as hard as you can.

I’m all for people trying their best — idleness has never got anyone anywhere — but there’s a line between this, and what can be defined as ‘overwork culture’ — the normalization, and even glamorization, of working too hard, scarcely sleeping and putting in too many hours.

Why is overworking bad?

Overworking is dangerous. For one, an array of physical symptoms and health problems can surface, from headaches and muscle tension caused by stress to a heightened chance of a stroke and increased blood pressure.

If you overwork, the mental health risks include anxiety and depression. It’s counter-intuitive, as it diminishes your capacity to work effectively (because of how tired you are and a lack of self-belief).

Just think about it; toiling endlessly, failing to engage in self-care and focus on yourself appropriately, forgoing sleep to finish tasks – how could this not be harmful?

Additionally, it can lead to burnout, that notorious condition involving an extreme lack of energy and exhaustion which stems from working too hard.

Burnout begins with the honeymoon phase, a period of intense commitment, enthusiasm, productivity, and optimism. It looks nice, but it’s just as transient, due to the impossible input it requires. No one can sustain this much effort. Here onwards, this pleasant stage rapidly mutates into stress, fatigue, and low self-esteem — the familiar symptoms of burnout.

It’s like a disease in the way that, it’s dangerous to leave untreated. Otherwise, it’ll become incorporated into your routine. An everlasting feeling of burnout is a waste of time and a waste of life.

Unfortunately, even though the honeymoon phase is faint and faded, it’s still the most memorable element of excessive hard work. Otherwise, why are we continuously under the impression that doing so is for the best, when it obviously isn’t?

Why do we intentionally overwork ourselves?

We’re chasing something that, evidently, isn’t possible. We’re expecting yourselves to do more, each and every day, than our bodies will let us. But why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Or, rather, why is this habit of overworking so addictive?

There are a multitude of reasons. For one, we want to make ourselves feel good, as if we are achieving something. Although not accurate, we believe that torturing ourselves is a sign that we’re moving in the right direction.

Success is painful and involves consistent labor, so putting ourselves through this makes us think that success is nearby – even if this isn’t, in reality, the right path.

Another cause is our infatuation with entrepreneurs. We constantly analyze their behavior and habits, searching for a secret method to rise to triumph. But there’s no ‘secret method’, as much as we wish one did exist. It’s just people putting in the hours, and getting what they want because of their own deeds.

We see this and convince ourselves that the only reason we aren’t influential billionaires is that we need to work harder.

Unfortunately, these entrepreneurs also feed into this idea that success is as simple as the equation: relentless hard work + consistent effort = success. Just look at Elon Musk’s famous quote ‘Work every waking hour.’ What a short, succinct phrase, yet it makes such a difference, as we opt to work longer days and put in more time. If Elon Musk says it, we ought to do it.

To be fair, it’s not solely entrepreneurs who are nurturing and nourishing overwork culture. From self-help books to motivational quotes, you won’t find anyone saying that too much endeavor is a bad thing.

These things may not be explicitly declaring it, either, but ‘do your best’ and ‘work as hard as you can’ are all the triggers we need to push us to keep working. In other words, to keep sacrificing our sleep and our souls.

What should you do instead?

Overworking is intensely difficult to avoid – the seemingly innocent ‘oh, just a few more minutes doing this’ can slyly transform into eventual exhaustion and weariness that’s arduous to cope with.

But it’s necessary to find a way around it. So, what are the things you need to do?

Set a realistic, rigid sleep schedule

One of the biggest temptations that come with overwork culture is sacrificing sleeping hours. The benefits of sleep are often not obvious, apart from tiredness – though caffeine can remedy that easily – which means that we consciously forget its significance. ‘Oh, so what if I sleep for 3-4 hours?’ you might think to yourself, too frequently. But 3–4 hours is not enough. The adult brain requires a minimum of 7.

Or, on the other hand, you might find yourself feeling guilty upon sleeping for the recommended number of hours. A few nights ago, I went to bed early simply because I had the time, which led me to feel ashamed for not doing something more productive.

But sleep is a pivotal element of your performance in every aspect of life. So, get yourself a proper, realistic schedule, one that you’re not fooling yourself with, and stick to it. Be strict, even harsh; if your set bedtime is 11:30, don’t stay up for a minute longer than that.

Separate your work and personal life

I understand, your work is your passion and your passion is personal, but this doesn’t mean you have to blur the lines between your work and personal life. Working from home, due to COVID-19, has aggravated the situation; how do you shut off when your desk is also the place you sleep?

There are quite a few ways you can go about doing this. For one, never work in the same place you relax. Your bed is the worst possible location for being productive; it should not facilitate two such opposing actions, sleeping and working. But other places, like the couch that you watch television on, are also a no-go.

When you’ve finished work, do something – it doesn’t have to take long – that’s not working. I’d suggest going for a walk or doing some exercise. This creates a barrier between the working-you and the current you, helping to reduce stress while you’re at it.

Reflecting on your workday is also rather effective. Firstly, reflection signifies the end of something, which is exactly what you need, something to mark the finish of your working day. Secondly, it gives you a valuable opportunity to examine yourself, and look at what went well and what didn’t.

Embrace saying no

Too often, we overwork because we willingly take on new tasks, thinking that they’re good for us. Well, sometimes, they aren’t! If your schedule is already crammed, there’s no sense in adding anything else. Otherwise, something else will have to go, and that something will be your own happiness and liveliness.

So, embrace the word ‘no’. Don’t be afraid to decline more work, if you’ve already got enough to occupy you. If you’re debating it, make sure you genuinely consider what you’re getting out of it and whether it’s worth it.

Lower your expectations of yourself

Even though this doesn’t always work out, we have a tendency to set high expectations for ourselves. For example, have you ever told yourself you’d be productive and tick several things off your to-do list, but life and procrastination got in the way, so you only ended up doing 1–2 of those things? If so, you’re not alone.

We love to ask more of ourselves than is sensible, more than we can actually produce. We fail to take into account that the human body is only so productive – it’s not a machine!

So, lower your expectations. Be realistic, and you’ll find that overworking is unnecessary, having completed everything that needs doing (according to your lower but more accurate standards).

Don’t compare yourself to others – you’re on your own journey

Comparing ourselves to others is irresistible; we do it all the time. We overwork ourselves because we look at individuals who are flourishing and think, ‘Hold on a second, why have they achieved all that while I’m only here? Oh, they must be working harder, so I’ll start doing that too.’ From here, it’s easy to lose track of just how much unneeded effort we’re putting in, just to be like someone else. This can happen even without realization.

But take a moment to remember that this is your journey. Do things at your pace – there’s no reason to rush everything, or to work so hard that you’re ready to collapse. Haven’t you heard the old saying, ‘slow and steady wins the race?’ Habits matter, but rapid progress doesn’t.

Overwork culture is everywhere, and it’s eating at us, but it’s crucial that we don’t let it get the better of us. How swiftly we can go from enthusiastically working too hard to ‘I just can’t do this any more,’ is not the determiner of success, but instead, our capacity to steadily work at a sustainable pace, which will leave us feeling happy and confident.

Shout out to Amy Rosie for her brilliant article:

It’s a riveting article, so I encourage you to take a read of it!

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