More often than not, I get this thought. What am I doing? Like any person with aspirations of building a wonderful career, I am working harder and harder. Initially, I had nothing else to do when I came back home; or I thought so. I was in the office from anytime to anytime. I never thought that it was actually detrimental to me. Further, I had enjoyed every moment of work and success. Slowly, from the objective of "Working to live" transformed, with out my cognizance, into "Living to work". I didn't realize that till I had to think of many things in life - personal life had taken more importance because of new responsibilities and new people in life. Now, I realise what I had done to myself. I had become a workaholic. What is a big deal in being a workaholic. Genuinely I don't know how it impacts the life of a person in general. But my experience has taught me some side and ill effects of being a workaholic.
Let me start from the evening of any given day.
17:30 - We go for a cup of tea and a small walk to take a break from the office.
18:00 - Start working and check the list of "to do things" and see how any are pending. There would be many pending things and tension in my head increase - first sign of the illness.
18:30 - After identifying the pressing things, start working on them and closing some of them. This continues till about 21:00 hrs.
21:00 - Now that it is already so late, I feel that a little more effort from my side would help me in crossing some more. - second sign of the illness
22:00 - My head starts feeling heavy and with great dificulty I try to focus on my work. Fatigue overtaking my determination, I accept that it is time and start packing things up.
22:30 - I leave for home and reach by 23:00 hrs, eat and feel heavinesss and discomfort in my stomach. I can't sleep immediately after sleep. So, I start browsing to catch up with my friends check and respond to mails.
00:00 - I retire for the day. I can't sleep. Some of the things from my work which I had left mid-way and not worked on start haunting me. - impact of the illness.
I hardly get to sleep properly and have a very disturbed sleep. I can't wake up early in the morning because I slept late and had a distrubed sleep. I struggle to wake up and succedd only after 8:00 hrs.
8:00 - Time for ablution (not spiritual though)
8:45 - Start feeling burning sensation in the morning and having problems like acidity. No hunger. I have my breakfast with great difficulty. Through out the morning till I reach office, I start thinking about what I should do at office. I get irritated and frustrated about my job - I ask myself a question "Am I working to live or living to work?"
9:10 - Leave home for office.
9:30 - I reach office. I have no inclination to work and no desire to check my "to do list". I wait till a cup of tea and waste time till 10:30 cribbing about myself. - impact of the illness
10:30 - Tea time. What have I done till now? Nothing. I think "Ok let me have a cup of tea before I start my work."
11:00 - Start preparing a to do list and start working on them.
12:00 - Before I do something substantial I start feeling hungry. I recollect that I could not have much in the break fast. I wait till 13:00 hrs not doing much work.
13:00 - Lunch time. "What am I doing? I have to complete something today. Let me start afresh after lunch.", I feel.
14:00 - I feel sleepy. I haven't had proper sleep in the night. I curse myself for sleeping late in the night and think of not doing it again. I have a cup of hot water (substitute for tea - too many tea would spoil health you know).
14:15 - Business as usual starts now. I know half my day is gone. - all because of the illness.
17:30 - Refer to the beginning of the schedule.
Note: There is no personal life in my schedule. Where am I giving time to myself and my family members.
This is the first time I have documented my daily schedule. This schedule, I believe, is applicable to not just me. But many people. Now I realize that there are many things I can avoid to improve my health. I have hardly worked to call myself a workaholic. But my start time and end time at office make me feel I am a workaholic. If I can minimize the lost time, I can improve the work-life balance.
Firstly, I must sleep early on Sundays to wake-up fresh and early on Monday. Reach office early by 8:30 hrs and leave office early by 7:30 hrs.
2 comments:
Further to the post, I tried doing that on 09-Mar-09 i.e. Monday. But reached home at 00:00 hrs. I believe it has got to do with other members in the team as well. Should they not co-operate and should the team members not mutually co-operate and benefit from being on time and leaving on time?
Same thing happens to me also. Some times because of me and sometimes because of superiors or sub-ordinates. But never thought of improving it. After seeing this post, i thought of improving my life style. Lets see what happens.
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