We’re all guilty of it. We push ourselves harder, we work longer hours and sometimes we even pull all-nighters. We want to see how far we can go without rest. But health problems caused by excessive work stress have that sneaky way of hiding beneath the surface – until it is too late.

Lynda Aurora, executive performance coach and partner at Plus Partnership, learnt it the hard way. “Through working long hours, meeting obviously tight deadlines and not looking after myself, I have rebounded from six major operations for cancer and three courses of chemotherapy covering two years,” she said. “This was definitely due to overwork.”

Each year scores of people ignore the signs and a significant number die from overwork. Stroke, heart attacks or even cancer, believed to be caused by stress, have become leading causes of death.

This phenomenon has become so prevalent in Asia that names have been give to it. “Death by overwork” is called karoshi by the Japanese and guolaoshi by the Chinese, and it has become a reasonable cause of death documented in China’s national statistics. In Japan, it has been classified as an epidemic.

How then do we learn to make vital decisions and take responsibility for preventing work from getting the better of us? We spoke to the experts on working smart.

Work smart stay healthy - Business Traveller Asia-Pacific

RE-EVALUATE

Take some time to think about your strengths and weaknesses. In his work with his clients, executive coach and CareerExec International managing director Dennis Hewitt sits them down and makes them list their strengths to help them identify a suitable career.

“A lot of people spend a tremendous amount of time going, ‘Why am I here, what’s my purpose?’” says Hewitt. But by putting down on paper the skill sets used to conquer certain tasks throughout the course of your career, you may end up finding a new direction to take in life or, better still, gain affirmation that you are in the right place. Hewitt says this makes all the difference.

“Sometimes it’s just about recognising that you’re good at something,” says Hewitt. And then work takes on a whole new meaning, as you’re doing something that gives you satisfaction.

Aurora also suggests exploring the deeper reasons why one overworks. “Are you doing it because you need to prove that you’re good enough for the job? Are you afraid of failure? Are you avoiding personal or relationship issues by overworking and not being available to confront them in an adult way?” are some of the questions Aurora recommends an exhausted worker confront and address to gain new perspective on why they work too much.

LEARN TO SWITCH OFF

In this day and age of “always on” technology and readily accessible information from almost anywhere, the lines between work and play have been muddied.

“We’re working with expectations on us to always be available, and you only need to look around you on weekends to see people with the BlackBerry on – texting, constantly speaking on the phone or answering emails,” says Stephen Clasper, executive coach and founder and director of Shakti Associates. “We are not able to switch off and get the recovery time our system needs.”

Buzz, pings and rings from communication and electronic devices in the office environment have also inevitably trained us to fix our attention on them, thereby breaking our concentration from the tasks at hand.

“One idea is to go to a quiet space, where all you can concentrate on is a piece of paper in front of you. When you don’t have the distraction of your telephone, BlackBerry or your monitor in front of you, you’ll get on and complete the work in much less time,” offers Clasper.

Aurora also shares the example of a chief executive, as documented in the book Tales from the Top by Graham Alexander. “He worked from nine to five, never more or less, never on weekends. He took no paperwork home and his desk was uncluttered. How did he do it?” she challenges. “He screened out all distractions by asking himself, ‘Is this the best use of me?’ All meetings ended within and hour and he relied on his personal assistant to watch, listen and report, while filtering out everything that did not keep him on target.”

Try taking ruthless steps towards filtering out distractions that are creeping into your life by learning how to switch off.

EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING

Recovery time is hugely important, says Clasper. Research has shown that our energy levels vary during the day, as it moves in cycles. In the first hour, our heart rate, hormonal levels, muscle tension and, more importantly, alertness and brain-wave activity increase, after which they start to decline. In the lee of the cycle, between 90 and 120 minutes, the body needs a period of rest and recovery. Otherwise, symptoms occur such as difficulty concentrating and a higher propensity to make mistakes.

Learning to work with your physiological rhythms will greatly increase your concentration, efficiency and productivity at work. “There is actually a benefit to your brain and the quality of output from your brain,” says Clasper.

Also, identify the periods in the day when your energy level is at its highest and plan your workflow accordingly, suggests Clasper. “Eighty percent of the population has its best energy level between six in the morning and midday, and the other 20 percent of the population is effective from 6pm till midnight,” says Clasper.

“If you are in the 80 percent, you don’t want to have all of your meetings in the morning; there isn’t a huge degree of productivity in meetings,” Clasper says. “It’s far better to use the morning to do the work that requires original thought or the project that needs uninterrupted time and careful analysis when your brain is at its freshest and most creative.”

Hewitt also warns of falling into the habit of spending “lost time”. “Lost time refers to periods of time where you simply don’t remember what you did; that space of time had no significant meaning to you because you were so burned out.”

GO EXTRACURRICULAR

Give yourself a reason to stop working. Aurora challenges everyone to “be interesting and not just be able to talk about work”.

“Make sure you have something interesting to do after working hours – take a course, attend a lecture, do some physical exercise and meet some friends,” she offers. Having a commitment that you have to meet after hours will give you reason to finish your work on time and a reason to leave work on time – on top of allowing yourself to take
a break and do something you actually enjoy.

Excessive working is an easy trap to fall into, for variety of reasons. Aurora, however, offers a stark reminder we should perhaps heed – that no one on their deathbed wishes that they had spent more time at work!

Read what doctors and healthcare professionals say about burnout in our next issue.