All work and no play

It's Monday evening, and you are settling in to watch Monday Night Football after a long day at work. But are you checking emails while the game is on? Maybe reviewing an estimate?

Then, at halftime, your child asks you to help with homework. You happily oblige but are disengaged thinking about the estimate. Guess what? You have all the classic signs of a workaholic.

Malissa Clark, an associate professor of industrial and organiza-tional psychology at the University of Georgia, Athens, writes in Harvard Business Review: “A workaholic is not someone who simply >works a lot of hours . … When work dominates your thoughts and your activities, to the detriment of other aspects of your life, relationships and health, you are displaying workaholic tendencies.”

Workaholics often suffer mental and physical anguish, but they can make changes that will help realign their lives to be more mentally healthy. Clark suggests those with workaholic tendencies do the following:

• Redefine urgent. Not everything is an emergency. Questioning whether a task is a priority may allow you to push it down your to-do list and enables your to-do lists to become roadmaps of what needs to be done immediately.
• Set boundaries. Deciding when and how to help others at work can free up some time to allow for things workaholics often miss such as a full lunch hour. Saying “no” to things “ ... is a reminder that your time is yours,” Clark explains.
• Reset your clock. Clark says workaholics tend to underestimate
  how long tasks will take. She suggests writing down the estimated time for completing each task and comparing that with how long tasks actually take. This exercise will prevent you from overscheduling your day.
• Rest and recover. Allow yourself time to recover from a workday. Exercise and meditation are examples of ways to accomplish this.

“This stuff takes work,” Clark notes. “But that work, I promise, pays off and can get you to a healthier and happier place.”

AMBIKA PUNIANI REID is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA’s vice president of communications.