You’re a powerhouse, but even an engine needs a break. Here are the signs you’re overworked and tips to help you fix it. Take a look!
1. Fluctuating Weight
If you never have enough time in a day to eat, or only have time to order in rather than cook, you might be overworked! Maintaining a healthy diet and a regular schedule is important for your body. Bad eating habits can lead to changes in your mood, your energy levels, and over long periods of time can contribute to the development of diseases.
How to Schedule in Eating Time!
Avoid ordering fast food as best you can. A great way to do this is to find some time in your evening, perhaps just before bed, and prepare a meal for the following day. Meal plans can save you time during the day and ensure that you get good nutrients from each food group.
If you need to take baby steps, start by drinking water! Switch out your pops and concentrated fruit juices with water. It will help your digestive system, improve your skin, and flush toxins out of your body. You can never go wrong with water.
2. Constantly Feeling Behind
Are you drowning in projects, constantly adding tasks to your schedule and “to-do list”? There’s a high chance you’re overworked if your tasks are never done on time even though you’re constantly working. It’s easy to get stressed and feel behind.
How to Push Past This Feeling
Give your mind a break! Take yourself away from phones, laptops, and paperwork. Budget your time, schedule breaks, and learn how to rest a little bit. Overworking yourself will lead to burnout! Humans are like machines, machines need time to cool down or else they will overheat and be completely useless. Everything and everyone needs time to wind down and recuperate.
When you get back to work and start tackling your mountain of tasks, you will have fresh eyes and a rested mind. Your checklist will start getting smaller and the quality of your work will be better.
3. Having a Weakened Immune System
High-stress levels can weaken your immune system! If you always have a cold or feel sick frequently, the reason could be from mental exhaustion and overworking.
“That’s because stress decreases the body’s lymphocytes, the white blood cells that help fight off infection. The lower your lymphocyte levels, the more you’re at risk for viruses like the common cold.”
Beyond the common cold, the stress on your immune system can lead to anxiety, headaches, migraines, fatigue, and recurring stomach aches.
How to Strengthen Your Immune System
At this point in time, I hope you’ve noticed that getting enough sleep is one of the best ways to reduce your stress and boost your immune system. Other strategies include taking frequent work breaks, a healthy intake of immunity-boosting vitamins, and (of course) plenty of exercise.
4. Difficulty Relaxing
Having this sense of impending due dates and always needing to be ‘on’ are telltale signs of being overworked. If your job requires you to work long hours, is incredibly stressful and fast-paced, trouble relaxing can be especially fierce. You may also have difficulty relaxing simply because there’s never any time for it. This is often an underestimated problem.
Ways to Improve Relaxation
Make time to relax. Seriously. Book it into your schedule and make it non-negotiable. Disconnect from the world for at least an hour or two. But, you may be wondering what to do with your relaxation time.
Here a few “activities” for relaxing your mind:
- Take slow, deep breaths. Or try other breathing exercises for relaxation.
- Soak in a warm bath.
- Listen to soothing music.
- Practice mindful meditation. The goal of mindful meditation is to focus your attention on things that are happening right now in the present moment. For example, listen to your body. How is your breathing? What do you hear? The idea is just to note what is happening without trying to change it.
- Write. Some people feel more relaxed after they write about their feelings. One way is to keep a journal.
Here a few “activities” for relaxing your body:
- Do yoga. You can get books and videos to do at home or take a yoga class.
- Try progressive muscle relaxation. This process involves tensing and relaxing each muscle group. Progressive muscle relaxation can reduce anxiety and muscle tension, and may even help you fall asleep.
- Take a walk or do some other activity. Making time to do things you enjoy can also help you relax.
- Get a massage or have someone give you a back rub.
- Have a warm drink that doesn’t have alcohol or caffeine in it, such as herbal tea or a warm decaffeinated beverage.
5. Your Work-Life Balance is Out of Whack
All you do is work. You don’t feel like you have enough time to foster a personal life. Having a poor work-life balance can result in additional stress, increases your risk of burnout, and reduces your overall well-being. In short: it’s very important to have a healthy work-life balance. Granted, there will be times where work will take precedent, but there should also be times where your personal life is your primary task.
Tips to Improving Your Work-Life Balance
First, find a job that you love — one that ignites your passion. If your job is draining just because you don’t feel like it’s for you, then move on. When you do find a job you love, make sure to schedule in time for yourself, whether that’s self-care time or a social outing. Be more efficient at work: work smarter, not harder! Remove distractions and work on one thing at a time; multitasking actually reduces your performance rather than boosting your productivity.
Check out our other blog. It gives you the signs and symptoms of a poor work-life balance. Plus, it gives you a better idea of what to do to improve it.
