4 RULES TO HELP YOU SWITCH OFF AND STAY HEALTHY
It’s easy to feel at times that you’re getting conflicting messages from the world, even on the most basic of fronts. Pick up a magazine or a colour supplement and you’ll see plenty of articles about how to add a side hustle to your daily grind, usually within a few pages of other articles that explain how important it is to spoil yourself, get the sleep you need and eat properly. To live the lifestyle the magazines are trying to sell, you would need approximately 42 hours in a day - and that’s not how time works.
As a result of this pressure, you may find that you’re spinning too many plates. While it would be ideal to block off time for each task - and fit in a decent spell of relaxation into the bargain - it’s more common to find that we’re squeezing multiple tasks into ever-decreasing time windows. It can be hard to know how, and when, to switch off. It is important to be able to step away, though, so it’s worth setting some rules that help you do this.
Don’t do anything “just because you should”
When you look at your to-do list, can you go through it and explain why each of the tasks on there needs to be done? With all the side hustles and the targets we set ourselves, it’s become all too easy to accrue needless busywork which is hard to justify when you look at it in isolation. When you’re trying to “crush” that to-do list, ask yourself if you could maybe just cross a couple of items off it because they aren’t essential. Do you need to rearrange your sock drawer today? What will happen if you don’t? With all that is going on in the world, if you are doing your job well that’s a pretty decent achievement, so don’t overload.
Have a definitive switch-off point
You may have read about the CEO who posed a question online about two employees who were good workers, but left work everyday at 6pm sharp. Said CEO wanted to know what he should do about them, and he justifiably got a very frosty response from people. Keeping work hours and “you” hours separate is essential, and when work starts bleeding into you time, it’s a recipe for discontent. In fact, it’s illegal in France for a business (with more than 50 workers) to email its employees after typical work hours. Even if you work for yourself, you need to respect the division between work and life - so set a time after which work is off the table, and stick to it.
If you “work hard and play hard”, you’ll eventually crash. Hard.
There is a mentality that says you can reward yourself for a twelve-hour day by having a regular blow-out where you hit the town and let off steam. In Japan, it’s known as the “salaryman” culture (although there is an increasing number of salarywomen, too). If that sounds like a good idea, then it’s worth also knowing that Japan has a word - karōshi - specifically for death by overwork, because that is the fate of thousands of salarymen every year. At a minimum, this work-hard-play-hard culture is a recipe for ending up in alcohol rehab or a nervous breakdown. Reward yourself for your hard work by getting some rest and booking some time off. Burnout is a very real risk for those who can’t switch off.
Engage fully with whatever you do
It’s true that you’ll get on in business by providing good work and hitting your targets, and this may drive a lot of people towards quantity of work, not quality. But you may find that your best results come when you block off time in the working day for “focus hours”, when you cannot be disturbed from your work. You then also block off time to step away and do something else. That can be eating your lunch by a window, going for a walk, or even having a power nap - whatever allows you to return to your work with a clear head and renewed vigour. Whatever you’re doing, be it working or relaxing, do it with your whole heart.
It’s admirable to want to put the work in and achieve more, but this should never come at the expense of being able to switch off. By working smarter and taking care of yourself, you can achieve everything you want and not do it at the expense of your health.