Workaholism Wins No More

04/03/19 - By: Nicole Wood

A friend of mind recently shared this article with me which talks about the virtues of having fun and argues that fun is not indulgent but necessary in a full and happy life. It challenges, “Imagine you had control of another person’s life, and could dictate their activity every hour of the day. Would you condemn them to spend 80% of their waking hours at a desk?” Let’s make sure that workaholism wins no more!

Great question. It’s a question I’ve never asked myself before: If I had complete control over another person’s life and choices like that Friends episode where Monica controls Rachel’s, would I choose for them to live the way I do?

I love to have fun. But I also love what I do and “grew up” in the consulting world where putting in the most hours was a badge of honor. It’s always tempting for me to just respond to one more email or Slack chat today instead of tomorrow.

Now I have to physically stop myself from overworking. Unless I force it to shift focus, my brain is always at work. Because I love Ama La Vida and because that is my nature.

I try to stop myself from talking about how late I was at the office or how long that deck took me to finish because I don’t want to even seem like I’m glorifying workaholic behavior. If I write a bunch of emails on Sunday, I’ll keep them in drafts and send on Monday. To protect the receiver’s weekend but also to not send the signal that we should be working on the weekend.

And I schedule uninterrupted time with my friends and family to do fun stuff. I try to keep my phone off the table. I’m present in the moment. I go on long vacations. I drink all the champagne.

How do you police your own workaholism?

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This week’s challenge:

Carve out time for fun to make sure that workaholism wins no more. Seems counterintuitive to schedule your fun, but it doesn’t need to be that clinical. It can simply mean booking in a dinner with friends or signing up for a workout class you love. Make one commitment to having to good old fashioned fun this week.