With this fast passed world we live in, the anxiety of trying to make a buck or two, and growing your bank account is one of the reasons you wake up in the morning, and probably stay awake for a good part of the night. The phrase ‘time is money’, keeps us from spending time with family and friends, while we convince ourselves the work is initially for them. However, these intense work habits dubbed as workaholicism, cause us to miss other important factors in our lives. The sooner you accept you have these characteristics, the sooner you can work on them.
You Think about How to Free up More Time to Work
Leisure time is too much an expense to enjoy, while there’s work you feel you need to get done. You believe you can make it to your office and complete some work before meeting up with your family and friends, just to end up canceling on them. You make excuses in your head, like its urgent, trying to postpone any social hangout you feel is unnecessary.
You spend much more time working than initially intended
You initially promised yourself just one hour, throughout that time you begin to see even more elements that you can ultimately include in your work load. You jot down a to-do list in your head, with activities that weren’t even included originally in your plan, while constantly allowing yourself 5 more minutes. Eventually you look at the clock and three hours have miraculously gone by.
You work in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness and/or depression
Maybe your trying to distract yourself from an event you rather not think about, whether it’s a death of a loved one, or any other terrible scenario. You attempt to make your workplace your center of peace; however this may not be an emotionally or physically healthy way to deal with your problems.
You have been told by others to cut down on work without listening to them.
There was a time my parents sat me down and asked me if anything was wrong, when they found me sleeping on the couch with my computer on my lap for five days straight. I had been juggling a whole lot, with school and some other work. Like any teenager I said I was fine, and tried to leave the conversation at that. They ended up disabling the Wi-Fi for a while, which was a nightmare since I needed it to access all my work, and that’s where I bring up my next point.
You become stressed if you are prohibited from working.
I couldn’t relax; just thinking about my workload, and not being able to do anything about it left me frustrated. That’s when I learnt about the hotspot on my smartphone, and just like that, I had access to internet once again. When there is will there’s a way, looking back however, this was not exactly the healthiest of ambitions.
You Give Yourself More Work, While You Already Have Work
There was a point where I would apply for jobs, when I already had plenty on my plate. I would see an advert about work I could do, check it out, get interested and apply, just to get even more overworked when I received the job. I always felt the need to constantly have something to do.
You deprioritize hobbies, leisure activities, and/or exercise because of your work
You work so much that it has negatively influenced your health. You may even tend to lose your appetite, feeling the need to complete a task before eating. Due to the lack of balance in your life, your emotional, mental, and physical health can be at risk.
Working long hours is almost ironic. While you work more hours, you earn more money, but the longer hours reduce the amount of leisure time available to enjoy spending some of the money. Life can immediately become monotonous, with all work and no play. Workaholism should be considered as a serious condition, if you exhibit most of the attributes above, it’s important that you seek help and assistance.