25 Sep Reduce Workaholism by Organizing Your Life

There is no clear definition of a workaholic. Workaholism isn’t in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for mental health disorders. There has been definitions on the internet that range from someone who eats, breathes and thinks work all the time.  To someone who checks emails, texts, and is on the phone throughout the entire day.  Someone who has no clear divide between home life and work life.  According to itunes dictionary, a workaholic is a person how compulsively works hard and long hours.

I think workaholism can be defined as work activities that are obsessive and compulsive in nature, which cause significant impairment to social functioning (family life, work environment, financial problems, and etc).

Isn’t hard work valued in our society?

We hear messages from the President and from society, as a whole, that hard work is the key to success.  We’re encouraged to have more, so you must work more.  There’s a message of “never enough.”  Overly working can’t cause you to feel worthy or enough.  You may get short-term highs or successes, but you’ll want more and it will never be enough.  The goal is to work smart, not more.

Would Einstein (today) be considered a workaholic?

There are innovators who spend most of their time researching, investigating and working on products and services that have changed our world. Without these hard workers we may have never gained the technology we have today.  I think it’s a choice.  I think there will always be hard workers in the world who want to leave legacies.  There will be consequences either way.  You have to ask yourself what you’re willing to give up.  We can’t possibly do it all.  Einstein made choice.  He’d rather not spend energy on what he planned to wear each day, so he made a choice to wear the same uniform daily.  He made a choice to focus his attention and time on other areas that were more important to him, then what he wore each day.

What can help with making the right choices for one’s life?

I think it’s important to have a vision for what you want to create in your life.  What do you want people to say during your eulogy?  What do you want to be remembered for?  If you want to be remembered as a loving father…then be one.  If you want to leave a book that touches people’s lives…then write one.  It’s time to live your best life.  Learn to be more efficient, and organized.  Learn to delegate and utilize your time wisely.  The more organized, disciplined and decisive you are, you’ll find workaholism will reduce.  Because, you find ways to get things done smarter and more efficiently in order to spend your time on things that are important to you.

I think those who are workaholics, tend to be acting out old patterns that are linked to negative core beliefs of not being enough or avoiding something in their life.  Workaholism is a symptom of a greater problem.  I find, those who are innovative develop systems that can operate without their presence.  It might take some time to create the system, but stay focused on drawing people and practices that can help the system grow and produce.  If you have a business that can’t operate without you, that’s a set-up to become a workaholic.

I encourage you to look at methods and systems that will increase your organization.  You might have to hire an organizer or read books on how to organize your business.  The more organized you are, the more efficient and effective you’ll be.  There will be less time spent on things that are less important and more time spent on things that matter.  Time is more precious than money.

What have you created in your life to increase efficiency and organization?  Has it reduced a potential to over work?  Tell us what you think.