Your alarm buzzes at 6 AM sharp. Before getting out of bed, you’re already scanning your daily to-do list and checking your inbox to get ahead. And by 8 AM, you’re clean, caffeinated, and starting the work day early.
Each task feels so important that you take lunch at your desk and cancel your evening plans. By the end of the day, you’re still working when everyone else is packing up. You grab a quick dinner and catch up on unfinished tasks.
Does this routine sound familiar?
There’s no shortage of excuses to work too much. Financial responsibilities, the inability to say “no,” or wanting to prove yourself can push you to put in more hours.
But is it occasional hard work, or are you a workaholic? People with workaholic tendencies don't always see the negative effects of the long hours they spend thinking about and engaging in work, whether it be on their physical, social, or mental health. That makes it hard to spot bad habits.
There’s a difference between being a workaholic versus working long hours — not only in their definitions, but in their potential negative consequences. Learning to distinguish the two helps you protect yourself from workaholism and focus on a more balanced lifestyle.
What’s a workaholic versus working long hours?
A workaholic is someone who has an uncontrollable or obsessive need to work, to the point where it negatively affects their lives. Workaholics demonstrate chronic patterns of professional self-absorption, always working and doing more than company or industry standards require.
Some might interpret going above and beyond at work as determination, strong attention to detail, and initiative, all of which are valuable soft skills. But in excess, that investment becomes work addiction. Workaholics simply can’t resist the urge to interrupt their work-life balance.
Obsessive work habits force you to miss out on opportunities for leisure or personal development. Getting enough sleep, spending time with family, or enjoying PTO become secondary priorities. And losing focus on your health — including social health — causes overall well-being to suffer. Workaholics may feel lonely or develop strained relationships with their coworkers and social networks.
Long hours alone don’t make you a workaholic. In most jobs, there are moments when you have to burn the midnight oil. You might have to cover for someone on parental leave, put in extra work to perfect an important project, or stay up late to balance work and a master’s degree.
But if your mind can’t tune out when you close your computer, you may be experiencing workaholism. Workaholics’ brains constantly buzz with work tasks or obsess over job performance. And when hard workers make time for rest and free time activities, workaholics sustain their relentless habits no matter what.
Are you passionate or heading toward obsession?
When your job excites you, it’s not always easy to understand if you overwork or are simply passionate about it. Everyone wants to enjoy their job to a degree.
Passion is an important ingredient to a happy life — but work shouldn’t be your only source of fulfillment. Stepping back and analyzing your internal and external motivations is a helpful way to understand your work mentality and relationship to your job. You can determine if you’re always working because you're passionate or have a work addiction.
One of the first steps is to identify what kind of passion you’re actually experiencing. There are two main types: obsessive passion and harmonious passion.
Harmonious passion is a type of intrinsic motivation. You put in hard work because it matters — it connects to your values, fills you with a sense of meaning, and makes you feel like your whole self.
But obsessive passion stems from external influences like validation, recognition, or reward. The extrinsic motivation is so powerful that you can’t help but put in extra work hours. This type of motivation often veers into unhealthy territory.
Here are seven questions to ask yourself if you think you're overworked:
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How much creativity do you express at work?
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Do your tasks take longer than you expected? Do you struggle with productivity and perfectionism?
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Have others mentioned that they're worried about your work behaviors?
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Do you feel grey rocked by your peers and coworkers?
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How often do work engagements get in the way of hobbies or family life?
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How do you feel after you finish work for the day? What's your mood like?
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Do your work values connect with your other values? Are they different?
Rumination: The characteristic trait of workaholics
On the surface, it may appear that you're committed to your job. But underneath, your inability to disconnect makes you think about work, even when you don’t want to — also known as rumination.
Rumination is an exacerbating mental state that prolongs negative mood, interferes with your problem-solving, and leads to impulsive behavior. It interrupts daily tasks like grocery shopping or tucking into bed and prevents you from enjoying them. Your ruminating never lets you switch from professional to personal. Everything feels blended into one.
In extreme cases, this chronic stress can affect your entire body and puts you at a higher risk of several physical health problems. And since workaholics struggle to turn off their stress response, their body is always on high alert, which could lead to increased anxiety or depression.
And in less extreme cases, stress affects you emotionally. You might feel anxious about getting everything done, frustrated when roadblocks arise, and disappointed in yourself when burnt out. And guilt is another common feeling among workaholics when they try to stop.
Releasing the guilt
Workaholics may feel immense guilt when they aren't working. You might feel like you’re letting down your coworkers or holding back the company’s success when you go out of office. Perhaps the type of power you have at work contributes to this attitude: a manager’s work-life balance might suffer under the perceived weight of their roles and responsibilities.
Guilt makes workaholics hurt when they're away from work. It bludgeons self-esteem and removes focus from important connections to family, interests, and social life.
But everyone needs time away from the office to develop a strong work-life balance. People who prioritize free time activities thrive more, both personally and professionally. Free time activities give you the chance to release stress, collect your thoughts, and re-energize. And some teach you new skills that benefit you back at the office, like emotional regulation and self-directed learning.
Releasing your guilt and committing yourself to life outside of work can help break your workaholic tendencies. It’s not an easy process, but it’s worth it to start loving life again.
4 ways to get back from being a workaholic
Like any other obsessive habit, restructuring your relationship to work won’t happen overnight. Here are four ways to slowly put yourself back on a balanced path to work and personal life:
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Set time limits: Disconnecting is difficult, especially if you work from home. Define specific hours for work and leisure to set clear boundaries. Try focus apps for your computer or smartphone to block work applications and remind you to focus on something besides your inbox.
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Schedule non-work tasks: You may fill every waking moment with a work task. Whether you’re a busybody or not, setting other commitments, like a yoga class or book club, can help you find other responsibilities to occupy your time. And making friends outside of work or focusing on family can provide a stimulating human connection that helps you mentally check out of the office.
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Get support from a professional: A career coach can help you build an action plan to wean yourself off work and develop healthier habits, like injecting your personal life with more fulfilling activities.
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Identify the source: Consider a health screening with a mental health professional. A trained therapist can help you identify the underlying problems that stimulate your work motivations, whether they’re financial pressures or self-esteem issues.
Working fewer hours isn't the solution
Professors of management Nancy P. Rothbard and Lieke Ten Brummelhuis studied the differences between behavior (putting in long hours) and mentality (work obsession) on the body.
Their findings suggest that the number of hours you work isn’t the main source of wear and tear on your mind and body. Instead, they linked the feelings of work obsession and the accompanying chronic stress to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of physiological abnormalities associated with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes.
Even workaholics who enjoyed their work were more likely to experience more symptoms than non-workaholics who worked longer hours. In other words, your mentality is more impactful than your habits.
Clocking in fewer hours isn’t enough to solve the root problem. Developing self-awareness to identify job stress, reprioritize health, and actively seek a work-life balance is essential to improving overall life satisfaction.
How to work long hours without becoming a workaholic
Working long hours and pushing yourself to your limits shouldn’t happen frequently. But sometimes, your professional life demands a little extra from you.
When that happens, you need to be accountable and responsible for how you engage with your work. Know your limits, and don't be afraid to talk to your manager or supervisor if you're approaching burnout.
Here are nine extra tips to help you when you have to work long hours:
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Work smarter, not harder on your tasks to create more free time
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Do your best to mentally and physically detach yourself from your work at the end of the day
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Value all types of rest to recharge your body for the next day and avoid overworking
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Turn work notifications off or unplug from your devices altogether
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Be present with your family members and friends when you see them
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Don't let your job performance define who you are
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Set time limits during your day
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Create a routine with different activities to do after or before work
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Look for a career coach or a counselor’s help
Take care of yourself
The difference between being a workaholic versus working long hours boils down to the mental energy you dedicate to your profession. Putting in extra work from time to time to advance your career or give your best to an important assignment is normal. But it's time to re-evaluate if guilt, negative ruminating thoughts, and the inability to connect to personal pursuits cloud your mental health.
Practicing self-care is a great place to bounce back to a fuller life. Dedicating less mental space to work and prioritizing your mental and physical health — whether a face mask, gardening, or journaling — are small but impactful steps to a healthy work-life balance.
Whatever practice you enjoy, make a point of integrating more into your life. And who knows: you might inspire others to do the same.
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