68: How Being a Workaholic Makes You Less Productive

Do you consider yourself a workaholic? You might be overworking yourself and not even know it!

Over half of Americans admit to working more than 45 hours a week.

Are you guilty of trying to squeeze in a few more hours into your day? You might have tried…

Getting up early
Staying up late
Working through lunch

But here’s the thing – when it comes to your brain, working more isn’t always the best strategy.

Today on The Bold Life podcast, I’ll explain why being a workaholic could be making you less productive.

By taking advantage of your brain’s natural attention limits, I’ll show you how to get more done in your day (by working less!)

Finding My Dream Job and Taking On Too Much

I’ve told the story before of the million years I spent at university (okay, 11 years) to get my Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a specialty in neuropsychology.

As luck would have it, a colleague was leaving her job in Calgary and gave me the heads up that the position (for my dream job!) would be opening. This is what I had trained for years to do.

I got the job and loved it. I had great colleagues, I got to see interesting cases, and I was able to help a lot of folks who had injuries or illnesses that impacted their brains.

But after five years I felt a little bit… off. I didn’t necessarily hate my job, but I noticed I wasn’t as motivated anymore. My days all started to look the same and I got bored with the same old, same old.

I realized that after years of hard work, I had finally reached my goal and was working at my dream job. But now that I was here, I had nothing else to aim for.

What I found was that even though I was in my dream job – I was bored!

My husband suggested that I take some courses on how to start a coaching business online, so while I was still working at the hospital, I started taking these courses as well.

Oh, I forgot to mention – at the same time, I also started my own psychology practice, and had a busy 2-year-old running around!

I was working a lot. I was taking my vacation days at the hospital to work at my psychology practice and squeezing in time to work on my business on evenings and weekends. I was probably working 50-60 hours a week for about six months.

As my luck would have it again, I was able to move to a part time job at the hospital so some of my time was freed up. But of course, I quickly filled up that extra time with more work towards my business.

Despite it all, I was pushing through. I felt okay, so I must’ve been okay, right? I didn’t think I was working too much, and I definitely wouldn’t have considered myself a workaholic at the time!

The Launch… And Crash

I finally got to the point where I had built my business up enough that I was ready to launch. I was able to quit at the hospital because I didn’t need those part time hours anymore.

This was the fall of 2019 and I remember being so excited. I wasn’t working at the hospital so I could have three days of my week back which meant I could work those days and free up my evenings and weekends. Finally some time to relax!

Here’s what happened instead… the launch of my business was the crash of Nicole.

As soon as I took my foot off the gas my body said “Wait, help! We are burning out!”. I was exhausted and I realized I hadn’t taken any vacation in my 60-hour work weeks for the last several months (remember – I was using my vacation days to work more!)

During my crash I noticed

My thinking efficiency was way down
I was stumbling over my words
I was making simple mistakes
I had decision fatigue and couldn’t make any decisions!

My inner workaholic had left me burnt out and exhausted.

Are you a recovering perfectionist like me?

If you’re like me, you’ve probably felt this burn out before.

Big goals take hard work. Although it’s great to have grit and determination to work towards your goals every day, your brain has limits.

Pushing past those limits in the short term (like pulling an all-nighter) can work, but over time your limits can pile up and leave you feeling

burnt out
exhausted
overwhelmed
and stressed to the max

and this affects your productivity!

But it’s hard to convince your brain that it has limits. It feels like if I just…

work harder
work longer
skip lunch
get up earlier
stay up later

… then I’ll get more done!

Like I said, this might be true in the short term, but when you go past your brain’s limits, it stops working the way it’s supposed to. Your thinking actually becomes less efficient, which means you’re getting less done… even if you’re working for longer!

Your Brain’s Limits

One of your brains limits is how many hours you can work at max efficiency and productivity.

A professor at Stanford University found that productivity per hour sharply declines after you’ve worked 50 hour per week. If you’re working more than that, the amount of work you’re actually getting done starts to go down.

After 55 hour per week, productivity drops so much that working more is basically pointless. You’re not actually doing more with those extra hours.

And after 70 hours per week, the study showed that people were getting the same work done as those people who were working 55 hours.

Longer work hours are also related to more absenteeism (people calling in sick or missing work) and greater turnover (needing to replace employees that quit).

A Four Day Work Week In Iceland

In Iceland, a study was conducted where they moved 2500 people to a four-day work week without cutting their pay. So they’re getting paid the same but working one day less!

They did this across a variety of industries and tracked the changes.

What they found was that companies started to really focus on improving efficiency. This included shorter meetings, cutting out busy work, and altering work patterns.

What happened? Employees reported a dramatic improvement in their wellbeing. This included

lowered stress levels
better work life balance
and their productivity didn’t change!

So they were working less hours, feeling better, and they’re getting the same amount of work done!

Why? When you’re more motivated, more rested, and more excited to come into work – you work harder in the hours that you’re there because you know that you have a limited amount of time. That’s what happened in Iceland!

You may have experienced this before too. You might have had endless time to complete a project and that made it easy to procrastinate on getting started. But if you have something due the next day, you put your butt in gear and get it done.

Tracking Your Time And Making A Time Audit

Have you ever tracked everything you do in a day? I mean everything, minute by minute?

I challenge you to try it! You’ll probably be surprised at what you find.

Include everything that you do in a day in 15-minute chunks. Even the small stuff, like that colleague who stopped by to chat or staring out the window for… however long you stared out the window for.

Once you have tracked what you’re doing for a week, look at where you’re spending your time. There’s probably a lot of times where you’re getting things done and being super productive. But there’s also probably a lot of time wasters you didn’t even notice. Once you see it, you’ll be able to cut out those time wasters.

Set Limits For Yourself

After you’ve finished your time audit and you’ve cut out all the time wasters, here’s the next step: Set limits for yourself.

If you’re given endless time on a project, your brain is gonna fill that time with endless procrastination and avoidance.

If you give yourself five hours to finish a report, it’s going to take you five hours.

Instead, if you give yourself four hours, I bet you’re gonna get it done in that time if you really push yourself.

Reign in your inner workaholic by challenging your brains’ belief that working more hours means more success. It’s not true! It can just lead to less productivity and more burnout.

Working through lunch or forcing yourself to sit there until it gets done are bad productivity strategies.

Your brain can only stay focused on one thing for about 60-90 minutes. If you’re trying to work on a task for any longer than that, you’re going to be

more easily distracted
way less efficient

While taking breaks can feel super weird for your inner workaholic, it’s going to improve your productivity and you’re going to get more done!

A Quick Trick To Use When You Start To Feel Guilty For Taking Breaks

What if I told you that you would get more work done in a day if you took a break every hour and if you worked less than 50 hours a week?

Your brain is probably screaming at me, isn’t it?

“But I have SO much to do, I can’t possibly work fewer hours or take breaks, I’ll never get anything done!”

That, my friend, is your inner workaholic lying to you.

The research is out – overworking is bad for your health and your productivity. There’s no upside to working more, even if it feels like a good option.

Your inner workaholic is motivated by self-doubt with thoughts like “if I don’t work long hours, I’m not working hard enough”, “everyone will think I’m lazy”, or “I’m not good enough”.

Here’s a quick trick to push back against this resistance – Ask yourself this: What if it was your best friend, or sister, or mom who thought that they had work 60 hours a week, or work through lunch, or couldn’t take vacation?

You would probably tell them that they can’t save the world if they’re burnt out.

You’re your own biggest critic. It can help to take a different perspective and reflect on the choices that we’re making for ourselves.

It’s also important to reflect on what you’re showing others around you.

Do you want to show your coworkers that

we need to burn ourselves out?
working 60 hour weeks is the goal?
we can’t stop for lunch?
vacations are a no-good-very-bad thing?

Or do you want to show them that you can be successful and still have a balance.

Take a hard look at how many hours you’re working this week and find those places where you can cut back and find greater balance.

Need some help? Check out my free workbook – Your Daily Productivity Checklist. I created it to show you the five mental habits that are tanking your productivity at work and give you a step by step checklist of how you can organize and plan your today so you can get more done with less stress. You can get your copy at www.nicolebyers.com/checklist

Show Highlights

[01:10] Why working more isn’t always the best strategy to get more done at work.

[02:46] The first signs that I was overworking myself in my regular job.

[08:14] Our brains work less effectively when we pass the workaholic limits.

[10:03] Research on a 4-hour work week.

[12:20] Tracking your time to see where you are less efficient.

[15:02] Using your brain’s focus time to get more work done.

[16:43] Why breaks are a must if you want to get anything accomplished.

[18:29] One question to ask yourself if you’re struggling to tame your inner workaholic.

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