Signs you are over working and tips to balance it.

 

Whether you’re pursuing your passion or celebrating a job well done, there are a lot of little (and big) wins to experience at work every day. But if you frequently feel stress—instead of satisfaction—you could be suffering from overwork. If you’re personally feeling overworked, you can address this by setting boundaries and communicating them to your manager. As a manager or team lead, you can prevent overwork within your team by supporting team members and providing context and clarity for their work. In this article, we’ll introduce you to some common signs and causes of overwork, before diving into how you can prevent overwork as an individual or team lead. 

How to spot overwork : Overwork happens when you work too hard, too much, or too long. If you feel like you’re exceeding your capacity at work—whether it’s physical, mental, or emotional—you’re likely suffering from overwork.

Signs of overwork :

• Lack of energy
• Constant stress at work
• Anxiety before beginning work, such as the Sunday scaries
• Difficulty disconnecting from work 
• Feeling like you can’t keep up with your regular life because of work related stress
• Feeling disconnected from friends and family
• Reduced quality of work, despite your best efforts

Set strict boundaries : Clearly communicate your start and finish times to the people you live with and block out your calendar in the evening. Measures like these will be instrumental in providing a clear distinction between the ‘work’ and ‘home’ aspects of your life. That, in turn, should be effective at helping to prevent your motivation from dropping in the middle of the day while keeping you focused and distraction-free.

Focus on the tasks that truly matter, right now. Be clear in your mind on what your key priorities and areas of focus should and need to be. At the start of each working day, decide on a handful of key tasks that you’re going to commit to completing. Make sure these are realistic. This will ensure you’re concentrating on the right things. It’ll also give you a greater sense of achievement at the end of the day, so that you’re likelier to log off and enjoy your evening.

Say no if necessary. In these changing times, your priorities and areas of focus might shift, almost daily. That’s why you need to have the confidence and conviction to say no to tasks that aren’t going to help you or your organization achieve what’s truly important right now. Habitual over-workers are often notorious ‘people pleasers’, so you need to learn the art of graciously saying no if certain tasks would threaten to overwhelm you and simply aren’t a priority right now. If an extra task or two really does need to be taken on, try to be realistic about what you can do in the time that you have during your main working day, perhaps offering a partial solution in the meantime

Take a set lunch break. Move away from your desk to eat lunch. If you can, go outside into your backyard or onto your balcony for some fresh air. This will enable you to ensure your lunch break feels like an actual break and you return to your desk feeling refreshed, motivated and ready to work.

Leave your workspace. It isn’t enough to merely set your working hours. You must also walk away once it really is time for you to log off. So, be disciplined in leaving your home workspace and don’t go back until the next morning! Try not to blend your home and work life. For many people, it can be especially tempting to do a little extra at night. However, this could come at the cost of disrupting your sleep schedule and depleting your energy levels the following day. That could then hurt your productivity and leave you struggling to catch up

Do something for yourself. Once you finish work for the day, stop thinking about it. Go out for a walk or run, if you’re able to, cook dinner or call a friend – in short, do something that is different to your work activities so that you can switch off. Make sure you do this consistently every day, so it becomes a signal in your mind that the work day is over. If you do, it will help to break out your two lives.

Focus on the positives. You may be overworking to avoid paying too much attention to the crisis that is going on around us. So instead, try to focus on the positives in your life and what you have to be grateful for. You may also like to use this time to get on top of any jobs you’ve been putting off around the house and spend quality time with your family if you are able to do so. In short, there are always things that you can do to distract yourself and use your time in healthy and productive ways during this outbreak, rather than overworking.


Source : https://asana.com/resources/overworked-signs

https://www.hays.net.nz/blog/insights/working-from-home-here-s-how-to-avoid-overworking