A lot of people think working more is better for your career. It’s not. If you are overworking yourself, then it can have negative impacts on many aspects of your life.
Your mental and physical health can suffer, your social life can be put on halt, and the quality of your work could go down. In fact, it is a universal truth that working more will not solve any problems.
Overworking yourself will not make you happier or healthier. It might actually do the opposite. Here are some reasons why overworking can harm every aspect of your life.
Mental health suffers when you overwork yourself
People often forget mental health is just as important to your overall wellbeing.
If you are overworking yourself, then it may lead to stress and anxiety, which can have a huge effect on your mental health. If the stress becomes chronic, then you might end up feeling burnt out all the time.
Among all the negative impacts of overworking, it can also lead to depression and potential substance abuse. In fact, several studies found that people who work 55 hours or more per week are far more likely to suffer from depression. As a way of coping with said depression, some people are likely to engage in abusing drugs or alcohol, which can lead to worse feelings of depression and potentially suicidal thoughts.
Poor physical health
Overworking yourself can have a negative impact on your physical health as well.
For example, studies show that people who work over 40 hours per week are more likely to suffer from back pain than those who work between 30 and 40 hours.
A study also found that working long hours is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. When you work more, you often push yourself too far. This could result in stress-related heart problems as well as other cardiovascular diseases.
When you overwork yourself, you do not have enough time to exercise or eat healthily. Physical health is just as important as mental health, and it will always be affected if you overwork yourself every week.
Social life on halt
When you overwork yourself, your social life will suffer. You do not have enough time to spend with your friends and family.
Even when you are at work, you might end up spending all of your energy on something that is not even related to your job. This means that allotting any time for social activities every day is impossible.
If you do not spend quality time with your friends and family, then your relationships will start to suffer as well. Long-term stress can also affect those close to you since it is contagious.
Quality of work goes down
If you are overworking yourself, then it will affect your productivity.
It can also lead to lower creativity. When you overwork yourself, your brain will not be able to function at its best. You might end up unable to use your imagination or see things from different perspectives.
The quality of work usually goes down when you overwork yourself. It is usually not possible to maintain the quality of work when you have been overworking yourself for a long time.
In fact, some politicians have realized employees were producing lower quality work due to being overworked. To solve this problem, legislation has been brought in where employees are only allowed to take up a maximum of 32 hours per week.
Your physical, mental, and social health will suffer when you overwork yourself. It is not worth it at all because working more will not grant you any benefits. If you feel that you are overworking yourself every week, try to take a day off or work fewer hours for a few days to have time to rest.
This will help you to recover and be able to work more efficiently for the next few days.
It is not only you who will suffer from overworking yourself. Poor mental and physical health can affect those around you as well, so try to decrease your work hours or take a break if possible.