“Regardless of our reasons for working long hours, overwork does not help us.” Sarah Green Carmicheal

I have recently heard a number of people talk about how long their work day has become and how it takes the better part of Saturday morning just to recover. I see a lot of that in my own home as well. It’s not healthy; it leaves us exhausted and stressed. So what can we do about it? Is there a way to change working long hours, without sacrificing productivity or quality of work? Most people will say, “No,” but is that actually true?

Here are a few tips that might help you tighten up your schedule just a bit. Plan your day and know when “close of business” is for you today – without that quitting time there will always be something else for you to work on. Shorten every meeting by 5 or 10 minutes. We tend to schedule meeting for the hour or half-hour and we use the whole time allotted—sometimes even more. Shorter meeting will require everyone to be more efficient and time will not be wasted. Time will actually become more precious. Finally, set deadlines for your own tasks—the more time we have, the more time we take, and that’s inefficient.

WFH has been great for the employer because we are all giving a tremendous number of working hours, but that’s coming at a cost—to us. Just because we can work until 10 o’clock at night doesn’t mean we should, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s healthy for us. I offered a few changes, but please share some of your own. A few adjustments might be all we need. Think like Fred Flinstone when it was quitting time! Yabadabadoooo!!

With Gratitude,

Beth