Wellness Wednesday: How to Tell if You’re a Workaholic

May 31, 2016 in women's health, social life, sleep, safety, productivity, prevention, Nutrition, mind body, medical care, health, fitness, family, doctor patient, Consumer Awareness, connectivity, communication

Most people say they are busy. But are they ? Americans are famous for being workaholics (fully 25 % of us). How busy is too busy ?

I would like to present my thoughts on the issue. Then I would like to present some other sources which are more authoritative.

It is important to understand what is not too busy. If you work full time, but have no time to work out or see your spouse, and yet you have time to game, watch TV or get a professional pedicure, you are not too busy.

You are not too busy if you find that working at your desk leads to hours of randomly surfing the web or checking social media. You can only assess yourself once you have cut all the unintended time wasting from your life. If you are mindfully watching a film, or checking specific things in social media for a few minutes, that is fine and does not count as time wasting.

So let’s say you have optimized the way you work and spend your time (a topic for another day). Let’s say you have reviewed your schedule and have decided that everything on it is important and nothing can be cut. Then you have met the “ inclusion criteria” and can ask yourself these questions:

Am I getting less than 7 hours of sleep on a regular basis ?
Do I feel a constant sense of frustration at not getting things done ?
Do I lack time to work out for 30 minutes per day ?
Do I lack time to eat three healthy meals and snacks ?
Am I getting sick too often ?
Is the quality of my work getting lower and lower ?
Am I neglecting important relationships ?

If you met the inclusion criteria and you answered yes to any of these things, you should consider thinking about whether you are overcommitted. These would be the relevant endpoints for me, after 54 years of living with, working with and being an overcommitted person.

WEBMD

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/are-you-a-workaholic?page=2

This article places workaholism in its psychiatric context. It is a compulsion to go work, combined with discomfort when not working. So it is much more than working hard, or working a lot. They site signs like trouble delegating, thinking about work while on vacation, or neglecting one’s nonworking life. They indicate that cognitive behavioral therapy and support groups can be helpful.

US NEWS

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/slideshows/17-signs-you-might-be-a-workaholic/2

This feature described signs you might be a workaholic. Noteworthy signs including having no hobbies, working through lunch every day, coming to work when sick, being accessible to work all the time, and consistently overbooking.

The WORKAHOLICS ANONYMOUS site is a real eye opener.

http://www.workaholics-anonymous.org/10-literature/24-twenty-questions

Surprises in their list of 20 questions include "Do you regularly underestimate how long something will take the rush to complete it ?” This is a more in depth read and I recommend it.

FORBES

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlee/2014/10/20/5-signs-you-might-be-a-workaholic/#430847d833d1

Forbes showcases a very worthy article about work-life balance, citing some interesting statistics including the following : "Americans put in more hours than workers in other wealthy countries and are more likely to work nights and weekends.” They alsogive an introduction to Bryan Robinson’s book “ Chained to the Desk”, which is available on Amazon.

The follow up articles in the same series

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlee/2014/10/20/6-tips-for-better-work-life-balance/#5ae8fd25dbc9

details 6 tips for a better work like balance. The two tops which appeal to me the most are “ Letting go of perfectionism” and “ Limit time wasting activities and people”.

SCIENCE DAILY

https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/workaholic.htm

This site highlights some more surprising aspects of workaholism including the observation that workaholics lose track of time. They also highlight some chilling aspects of workaholism including the problem in Japan, where early death related to workaholism has its own word, karoshi. We all know that workaholism takes a huge toll on mental and physical health, but death by karoshi is hard to fathom.

I am going to strive in the next few weeks to make my posts more brief. I will feature more outside sources. It is my hope that these posts will be easier to write and easier to read. This is one step I will be taking toward a better work like balance.

Send me your thoughts on the matter. I would love to see what you think.

Wellness Wednesday: The Art of Preparation

April 05, 2016 in women's health, social life, productivity, prevention, Parenting, mind body, Mental health, health, family, fitness

Why discuss preparation in a health blog ? Preparation is an antidote to what ails us.

Preparation is key to overcoming health challenges like obesity, poor nutrition, lack of fitness, chronic disease, and bad habits.

Tax day is April 15th and tax season has prompted my focus on preparation. There is a lot of stress going around associated with tax preparation, and not just because money needs to be paid. There is stress because some people leave their preparations for taxes for the last minute.

The opposite of preparation is procrastination. Check out this older post on procrastination:

Curing Procrastination

Procrastination increases stress, undermines self - confidence, and undermines relationships at home and work.

It decreases performance and effectiveness at completing any goals, including those associated with health.

There is a common misconception that preparation and goal meeting is about will power and discipline. On the contrary, preparation is about the realization that goal meeting is hard. Because goal meeting is hard, we need preparation which is easy. Said better, preparation is what makes it manageable. Preparation, not will power, is the key to success.

Let’s dissect or “ unpack" preparation, so you can see what it really is:

Having optimism that your goal can be achieved.
Taking the time to fully define your goal.
Frankly assessing where you are at the present moment, so that you can see how far you have to go.
Breaking down your goal down into parts. These subsections of the main goal, and not the whole goal, get divided according to the SMART goal criteria. Each of these subgoals must be:
- specific
- measurable
- attainable
- relevant
- and time bound.

That is what will make them, if not easy, then attainable.

To learn more about SMART goals, read here :

New Years Resolutions

Three Ways to get Ready for the Week

The Importance of Inspiration

Sometimes preparation itself is daunting. However, when the ask of preparation itself is broken down into segments, it is easier to face. And, crucially, starting with plenty of time ahead will take enable you to spread the segments out so you don’t have to do too much at one time. With preparation the hard becomes easy and the stressful becomes empowering. Try some today !

Wellness Wednesday: Curing Procrastination

July 29, 2015 in women's health, social life, sleep, productivity, prevention, Parenting, mind body, Mental health, family, communication

Is procrastination an illness ? No. But it can affect your health. Let’s take a look at what it is, why it happens, and how to cure it.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is putting off things that need to be done. How big is the problem ? About 20 % of people are chronic procrastinators and these percentages increase significantly during college. People who are chronic procrastinators perform more poorly in their family, in high school, in college, in jobs, and in relationships. This sounds like an unfortunate nuisance, but it is actually a health problem. According to many sources, procrastination creates stress which interferes with sleep, weakens the immune system and makes heart disease more likely. It is also very hard on mental health.

To understand why procrastination happens, we have to look deeply into issues like self control, self image, inner honesty, fear of failure and distress tolerance.

1. Procrastination may start as a form of silent rebellion against parents. This becomes a vicious cycle as adolescents avoid parents in favor of friends, who do not hold them accountable as parents would.

2. Certain necessary tasks or even the idea of the tasks make people uncomfortable (distressed) , either because they dislike doing them or they are perceived as difficult or overwhelming. Those who cope with their feeling of dread or discomfort (distress) by avoidance may procrastinate, only making matters worse. Those who have poor coping skills or distress tolerance are likely to do other dysfunctional things to cope with life’s daily challenges and discomforts, such as abuse substances.

3. When people do not want to risk failure, they will subconsciously "arrange" to have insufficient time for a task, thereby providing themselves with a ready excuse for their suboptimal performance.

4. Procrastination is self sabotage. People procrastinate to fail in order to show others they have been mistreated, to “get back at them” or to acquire victim status. ( This is, by the way, passive aggressive behavior.)

5. Some people who procrastinate simply want others to pull up the slack in whatever it is that needs doing.

6. Some people who really want to succeed procrastinate. They deceive themselves about several things:

They will be more motivated tomorrow.
They have plenty of time left.
Their task will not be that challenging nor take that much time.
They will do better when they are feeing more motivated or inspired.
They think they do better under pressure.
They are talented enough to pull it off.

These are white lies we tell ourselves.

What can be done about procrastination ?

1. Procrastination is hard to overcome but it requires honesty with oneself and usually firm persistent guidance from others.

2. Strong feelings of interpersonal conflict should be evaluated by a qualified counselor.

3. Problems with procrastination in the setting of substance abuse should also be evaluated by a qualified counselor.

4. Simple methods to beat procrastination are as follows:

Fortify your will power and your distress tolerance with adequate sleep, healthy meals, snacks and regular exercise.
Become a list maker. Get a system which is either digital, paper or both and include reminders such as sticky notes or alarms.
Use SMART goals criteria for your list items. See more about SMART goals HERE. Nutshell version: SMART goals are specific,measurable,attainable, relevant and time-bound.
Overestimate the time it will take you to get something done.
Ditch perfection as a goal. It gets in the way of progress and accomplishment.
Divide large tasks into a series of small manageable tasks.
Practice mental “ time travel” to see how you will really feel tomorrow.

5. All of this requires self regulation. Practicing self regulation with small tasks has been proven to improve self regulation with big tasks.

Realize that self regulation is critical to healthy relationships and success in life. That should be plenty of motivation.
Pick several easy small tasks, and stick to them. Larger tasks WILL get easier as a result.
Yoga or meditation is especially good training for the nervous system where self regulation is concerned.
Be easy on yourself for lapses.
Pat yourself on the back for all successes.