15 Signs You May be Working Too Much

Americans are overworked. We’ve heard the statistics many times. We work too hard, too much, and we don’t unplug from our devices. Every study on mental health will tell you that working too much or non-stop is not good for your health. It causes you to be depressed, overweight, and can lead to heart disease or heart attack.  If you find yourself working all weekend, all week, and all night you are clearly overworked and something has to change.   

Last week I hit that point where I knew I needed to slow down. I went to the spa on a Monday of all days. I started having anxiety leading up to the day. Then all kinds of guilty feelings and stress because of those feelings. The spa day was planned to celebrate my mother-in-law’s milestone birthday. It was six of us going -my MIL, sister-in-law, grandmother-in-law, and two aunts-in-law .  I almost canceled but then I felt all kinds of guilty about that.  

So instead, I cleared four hours from my calendar and planned to work early in the morning and afterwards. If all went well, I wouldn’t miss a beat. Still, I was very stressed that morning. We were going to arrive early, have our services, eat lunch, enjoy each other etc, and be home by 1 pm. Massages were staggered so that we would all finish at the same time. I arrived late instead of early, was in a panic, and completely stressed out. I briefly saw some of the group returning from their services the hour before. Then I was whisked away to my room 15 minutes into my massage time.

The masseuse was kind as he slowly gave me directions, etc. The whole time I was getting more stressed. In my mind I was wanting him to hurry up and get on with it so we can start the massage and get back on schedule.

He asked me to choose my scent for my oil and before he could even finish describing the options to me I grabbed one of the tiny bottles, smelled it really quick to appease him, then, I dropped the bottle.

Oops!

Very nicely he told me to just relax and take a breath. I could tell I was stressing him out!

I finally closed my eyes, took a deep breath and willed myself to shift my energy into relaxation mode. I reminded myself that I had adequately prepared for this time away. I had already checked and responded to all emails from the morning and weekend and that I deserved four simple hours on this Monday.

What are the signs you may be overworked and stressed out? Well, in addition to all the above, here are a few more…

15 Signs That You May be Working Too Much

1. Your friends stop calling to invite you out or stopped calling period. They know you’re busy or probably too busy.

2. Your shoulders are so tense it looks like you don’t have a neck.

3. Chest pains or forgetting to breathe are common, every day occurrences.

4. You carry your computer, mobile phone, and tablet with you everywhere you go.

5. You’re at the gym stressing out about the email account you haven’t checked in 30 minutes.

6.  You spend the weekend catching up on work even though you spent the week working 12+ hour days.

7. You sacrifice family time for work time.

8. You can’t remember the last time you sat down and had a real meal. Or a meal where you weren’t looking at a screen.

9. You keep your phone on at night and wake up to check emails and respond to them…

10. You’re kids tell you in many different ways that you’re working too much.

11. You keep your voice mail box full so that you don’t have to listen or respond to them. Or, “leave me a text” is your voice mail greeting.

12. You haven’t taken a day off in six months.

13. You’re still working even when you’re sick.

14. If you work at home, you “don’t have time” to get dressed, eat breakfast, or shower in the morning.

15. You can’t list three hot topics in the news headlines because you don’t turn on the TV, read a paper, or even browse the net for something unrelated to work.

Do any of those sound like you? If so, you may need to schedule a vacation, staycation, or a few hours at the spa. What happened with me? Oh yes, everyone left after lunch (because they did arrive early) so I stayed and enjoyed a solid hour to myself. It was magical!  I steamed, enjoyed blueberry infused tea, misted, then just sat and stared at a water sculpture. I went home, ready to work, and was surprisingly very efficient.

Thank goodness for time away…