PHOTO COURTESY OF TASKMANAGER.COM

A graphic depicting overworking

Hard work is a great thing. There are times when you need to put your all into something, whether it’s a passion project or something for your job or class.

However, having continuous weeks where you work yourself to the bone without any rest should not be as romanticized as it is today.

The world seems to be pushing everyone to work to a point where their limit is beyond broken. When you continuously use up your energy every day like this, both your mental and physical health begin to deteriorate. 

Going beyond your limits occasionally isn’t necessarily going to cause you to crash, but that constant drain will eventually take a toll if you don’t take breaks. 

From my own experiences, I have seen how bad overworking can be. Last fall, I was taking on the responsibilities of a full-time assistant manager at a fast food restaurant while simultaneously taking 15-18 hours of classes. 

Because of how stretched thin I was, I began missing classes and deadlines because I came back every night from my job absolutely exhausted. 

I failed two classes and performed poorly in the others that semester.

I didn’t balance out my workload and because of that, my mental state began to fall apart. This clash of classes and my job caused me to pick long work weeks over finishing assignments and I felt as though I was letting everyone around me down, causing me to fall into a depression. 

Through this failure, however, I found out the true dangers of overworking and have been able to help friends to keep from doing the same. 

One of the major consequences is the slow decline in friendships. When you spend all of your time working, you miss out on time with others.

I found myself spending less and less time with the people around me, and felt out of the loop with them. Isolating yourself with work takes a huge toll on your mental health if you constantly feel like you’re missing out on your social life.

Overworking yourself can lead you to start declining in other aspects of your life as well. As you continue to exhaust yourself, you lose more energy you could devote to other worthwhile projects or events.

Progress in classes stagnated for me when I chose to devote my energy to work. When I got home from my job, there was no motivation for me to keep digging into a non-existent pool of energy to finish my assignments. 

Even if I did, I tried to rush through them and spend the least amount of time as possible to be able to rest or relax. 

With that strategy, it just led to more stress from knowing whenever I had time where I did relax, I could’ve done more with my time and finished my homework or projects. This, in my opinion, is the worst part about overworking. 

You find yourself in a situation where you are in a continuous cycle of stress. There is no relief from it in a daily routine of nonstop work. 

You go and put yourself through the wringer at a high-pressure workplace, only to go home and have to decide between taking time for yourself or time for classwork. No matter which one you choose, there is stress from either skipping on schoolwork and worrying about the deadline or stress from realizing you may finish your assignment without a moment of relief before you start the cycle all over again tomorrow.

All of this adds up to waves of depression, anxiety, and irritation, which affects you and the people who care for you. Sometimes, it may be best to take a small break from work, whether it’s half an hour or a few hours.

This is by no means an excuse to not work hard. I continue to push myself every day to put in as much effort as I can into every aspect of my life and I highly recommend that people do the same. However, it is best to practice mindfulness and make sure you aren’t overworking yourself to the point of self-sabotage. 

Putting yourself at risk in this cycle may lead to more success in the short term, however, it may be best to consider the long term and make sure you are healthy enough to sustain the workload you are under.

Categories: Opinion