There will always be occasions when you will have to work overtime. Deadlines, rush jobs, special projects, and trials are a fact of life and often require professionals to work beyond 5:00 p.m. These special circumstances are not a problem. They happen, they pass and life returns to normal.
When these ‘special circumstances’ become habitual, when you’re working overtime whether it’s needed or not, when your whole life revolves around being at the office or texting on your BlackBerry, you may need to take a leap off the merry-go-round and reclaim your life.
Is your ego tied to working overtime? Sometimes we feel better about ourselves if we’re giving 150% to the team, whether anyone else notices or not. Please give this some thought. Working long hours can lead to increased stress and burnout. This habit may also send you on a guilt trip because of it conflicts with family time. Weekends and evenings happen for a reason. Use them to restore your spirit and your energy.
Working overtime may foster procrastination. You may find that you’re not productive during regular working hours because you have the option of finishing the work later. Your inclination to put off your work because the whole day and evening stretches before you will only lead to procrastination.
You may make more errors. You simply can’t be your best 24/7. If you’re consistently working overtime, the quality of your work may suffer. What’s more, if you are working late on your own time, you may feel you’re being taken advantage of and, therefore, justified in turning in a second rate performance.
Working overtime leads to increased interruptions. You’ll always find something to do to fill the time you have, whether it’s putting your nose to the grindstone and churning out the work or drifting around the office to chat about Big Brown’s loss at the Belmont. When your work day has no definitive end time, you may also be more apt to tolerate unnecessary telephone calls and e-mail or interruptions by your co-workers. These all waste your time and keep you from getting your work done.
Other people’s procrastination may rule your overtime. Some people simply cannot do their work unless they are up against a deadline. If your supervising attorney has this tendency, you’re going to find yourself in Overtime Land all too often. If at all possible, do what you can to head off the crisis by completing some parts of the project ahead of time. You usually know what the procedure will require. Also, if you don’t tolerate constantly being asked to work overtime, you may find that the last minute behavior changes.
There are two things you should consider:
First, you’ll always fill the time you have…so you’ll probably get the same amount of work done whether you’re working eight hours or twelve.
Second, you’ve heard that no one has ever had “I wish I’d spent more time at the office!” engraved on their tombstone. Life is simply too short to spend it all at work.
If you have no ‘quitting time’ your day will stretch on and on. You need a deadline. Make 5:00 p.m. your new deadline and stick to it.