Relationships > Career
He woke up in the wee hours of the morning and got ready for a long work day. He had multiple meetings and traffic was always a nightmare. He needed to get to work on time and complete some work before his first meeting. The day passed by in a hectic blur, he ran from pillar to post, trying hard to get all his ducks in a row. He worked late and lost track of time. By the time he got home, he was too tired to think. He jumped into bed and closed his eyes, vaguely thinking about how he hadn’t spent any time with any of his loved ones. He needed rest before tomorrow. After all, it was essentially a replay of today.
I get it if you’re a workaholic. A lot of people are. I mean at the end of the day, working gives many people a sense of purpose. And it’s great, it really is. Loving your job is truly a blessing. Rising for the grind is amazing. Getting up every day and working towards your career goals is true perseverance - and perseverance is something everyone needs.
But sometimes working too hard and too long is a curse. Especially when your career creates a wedge between you and the important people in your life.
It’s easy to get lost in your work; to block out the entire world and concentrate on the task at hand. It’s easy to forget about everything else and get so engrossed in your work that you lose track of time.
But if you’re going to spend all your time concentrating on your career, when will you find time to work on your relationships? After all, if you had to die today, your company will end up replacing you. But your family? Your family will mourn you and think about you for years to come.
The sad thing is that we often fail to realise just how much emphasis we’re placing on our career and not enough on our relationships. If we continue spending too much time at work and not enough time with our loved ones, we are sure to create problems in our personal lives. Problems in our personal lives will most definitely result in problems in our professional lives. It’s important to find a work-life balance and to stick to it.
Here’s a breakdown of a typical working class person’s day:
There are only 24 hours in the day:
-8 = Amount of healthy hours required for sleep
-1 = Time it takes for breakfast and to get ready
-1 = Time it takes to get to work
-9 = A typical work day including lunch and coffee breaks
-1 = Time it takes to get home and run errands
-1 = Preparing dinner and eating/other essential tasks
=3 hours (if you’re lucky and you didn’t have to work overtime) to spend with your loved ones.
Is three hours or less enough to maintain the important relationships in your life? Probably not, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do to change that. I mean, you can cut down on your sleep for more hours in your day but won’t less sleep just make you more miserable?
Work hard and set daily goals so that you can complete all the necessary tasks within your eight working hours. If it’s not urgent and if you’re too busy, delay some tasks for the next day. Try to plan your days so that you finish all your work within the applicable hours so that you do not have to work overtime. Try to complete all your work for the week by Friday COB because weekends need to be spent in maintaining relationships.
Once in a while, it’s okay to work overtime and work on weekends but doing it often will result in a bad habit. Such a bad habit can have a negative influence on your life.
Work smart. Plan. Prioritize.
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