Knowing how to stop working so much is key. People are fed up with their jobs more than ever now. Overwork hit our mental health more than any other. Knowing how to set boundaries with your workplace so that you don’t give too much to the job is more important than ever.
John Deere’s 10,000 employees coordinated a five-week strike against John Deere. The company caved and the employees ended up negotiating much more favorable terms with increased and performance based pay for their employees. People are fed up with working more so than ever before.
There’s no point in giving your heart and soul for your company because when they realize you are unprofitable, they will not be afraid to get rid of you. It may not be financially feasible for you to stop working altogether. However, the end goal is for you to get to stop working, if you want to.
There’s more to life than spending 8+ hours a day working in a cubicle. There’s places to see and people to meet. Money isn’t at the top of your priority list, it’s merely a part of your priority list. When you’re in your early 20’s, that may be the number one goal. That way, you can provide for your future family and you can create a life.
However, the day you finally realize that money and working hard should not take up the majority of your time is when you start living life. It’s when you can finally see the life and the world for how it’s supposed to be appreciated. If you happen to be rich after taking steps to get there, then great.
However, if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world.
Why You Should Stop Working So Much
The first reason why you should stop working so much is so you can SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media!
The other reasons are as follows:
1) People Regret They Didn’t Stop Working
Working too hard is one of the people’s greatest regrets on their deathbed. At the time, it just seems so important. However, you get news that you parents passed away or that your grandparents passed away. Or you find out that you have cancer.
Then you start to wonder, what was all of that for? It seemed so important at the time now seems so trivial. Stop working so much because it’s not what you’re going to care about at the end. It’s what’s going to make you think it’s important at the present.
In the grand scheme and in the bigger scheme of things, money isn’t going to be as important as you think. There’s other more important things in life that you want to pursue. I personally used to emphasize gaining wealth and increasing net worth as a top priority.
The bear market of 2022 made me realize, that’s not really what I’m going to care about down the road.
2) Sitting is the New Smoking
Sitting is bad for our health. Most of us work on our computers and not out in the field. It not only affects our eyesight, but it affects our posture as well. Our bodies need more active exercise rather than just sitting in a desk all day long. We need to get our heart rate up periodically for our health.
Stop working so much because sitting is really lowering your quality of life. When we sit and work behind a desk, we stop losing our senses, as well. We don’t know if we’ve had headaches throughout the day that we’ve been ignoring or if we have pain on our shoulder we didn’t even notice.
Work is not going to be there for you when you’re having a bad day. There’s no reason to give everything to your job if the return isn’t there by the end of it all. My prior boss told me I was the highest performer out of 6 other analysts. She ended up giving me a 2% raise. It wasn’t worth it.
3) You Should Work to Live
We should ALWAYS work to live. When we were little and the teacher asked us what we wanted to be, we didn’t say we wanted to be a Financial Analyst of a Fortune 500 company. We had higher aspirations of being a fireman, astronaut, or any other occupation out there.
That means our dream life isn’t to make huge corporations become even richer. Our dream job is to make an impact on society in the way that we would like to make an impact. I personally wanted to be either the President of South Korea, my home country, or a lawyer.
I became neither of those things and I know I will never become either. However, it gave me a sense of what I should be striving for. Not to focus on the money but to focus on building a life towards my dream and passions. Stop working so much because working to live is a much better way.
How to Stop Working So Much
So now, how do you stop working so much?
1) Find Interesting Projects to Pursue
Unless your boss or company recognizes the work that you do on the weekends and going above and beyond for them, it’s time to find interesting projects to pursue on the weekends. It could be a side hustle that you’ve been always wanting to try.
Or it could be just trying out Uber on the weekends and seeing how that works for you. Whatever it is, there’s ALWAYS something to do on the weekend that you can pursue. It’s time to find those projects and pursue them. You could use the weekend to relax.
However, there’s always weekends that you want something to do. You can stop working on your day job on the weekends and start working on your passion projects on the weekends. There’s plenty of things that you can do, all you have to do is find them to fulfill your time.
2) Change Your Mindset
I know how you feel. You feel scared and afraid that if you stop working, you will be the first one on the chopping block. You feel like you need to be a perfect employee otherwise the company is going to fire you or lay you off. I personally haven’t seen any people getting laid off for bad performance yet, in my life.
The only layoffs I’ve seen is from the company not performing. Their profitability is down so they need to find ways to cut costs. There’s always a way for you to get a job. It may take a while and it may not be at the level you’re at right now. However, there’s always a way for you to be employed if a job doesn’t work out.
The way to stop working so much is to change your mindset. You don’t want to think about the worst case scenario and start thinking about the best case scenario. There’s always going to be a question of, “what if it doesn’t work out?”. The right question to ask is, “what if it DOES work out?”.
3) Prioritize Other Aspects of Your Life
You’re always going to be juggling between work, family, friend, or significant other. At some points, you’re going to be juggling them at the most inconvenient times. Maybe your friend texts you right as you’re about to give an important presentation to your boss.
Whatever it is, there’s other aspects of your life that you can prioritize. Stop working so much at your 9-5 and focus on other aspects of your life that you can tend to. There’s always going to be something more important than work. More important than punching numbers on the spreadsheet.
The day that I started caring about other aspects of my life is the day that I started to enjoy life more. Particularly in 2022. 2021 and 2020 were some of the most brutal working days of my life. Once I got a better 9-5 that actually respected my life outside of work is when my life started improving.
4) Learn to Say a Hard No to Stop Working
Some people are downright terrified to tell their boss no. If their boss asks them to do work on a Friday at 4:30pm, they get right to it without question. However, as you get further in your career, learn to say a hard no. Set boundaries. Sometimes, you just can’t get to work until the Monday after.
Or if you are going out of town on the weekend and you just can’t plug into the computer, tell that to your boss. You deserve a job where you can prioritize other aspects of your life over the job. Your bosses went through the exact same thing that you’re going through.
They know what it’s like to have to manage a job with a family and friend to take care of. Some bosses will be understanding of that and respect your boundaries. Other bosses have a, “because I suffered, you must suffer as well” mentality and may not be so understanding.
Getting a 9-5 that does the former is so helpful.
5) Ask Yourself Whether You’ll Regret It
Will you regret working so much? Or will you regret saying no to your son’s soccer match and choosing to work in the office instead? Stop working so much by figuring out what’s more important to you. Some people miss all that time with their family only to find out it’s not even close to what they wanted.
Regret is real. Pain is real. When you’re ramping up work and building your career, you could be thinking all of that sacrifice is worth it. However, by the time you reach the end, you could realize that it wasn’t all worth it. Your bank account is too big and you have no one else to share it with.
However it is, ask yourself if you’ll regret it. I’m currently in my 20s right now so I don’t regret trying to sacrifice long term family over career success. However, I know once I get to my 30’s, I’ll start to have that regret. I’m mindful of that and making choices to adjust to the possible regret that I could have.
Life is about minimizing regrets and living to the fullest.
6) Delegate Whenever Possible
The most important thing you’ll learn as you move up the corporate ladder is to delegate whenever you can. Bosses don’t become bosses because they did all the work themselves. They became bosses because they delegated work whenever possible and focused on what they did best on providing value.
Stop working and let someone else do the work. The higher up you go, the more you’ll have to find ways to trust your team that they’ll get the job done. It not only helps you stop working and help you focus on your core competency, it helps your team grow as well.
If it’s possible, outsource your work out to another person. It will be hard to figure out and hard to get used to when you first do it. However, as you get more comfortable doing so, the faster you can move up the corporate ladder and achieve self actualization.
You have paid employees for a reason. It’s to make your life better and easier.
7) Find Another Job
Believe it or not, there are GREAT 9-5’s out there. Some companies are so amazing that they have a great work life balance and at the time same, provide great pay. Stop working for a bad employer and start working for a great employer. The job that I have right now is like that.
The job is challenging enough to make me be intellectually stimulated. However, it’s not so demanding that I can’t have a life outside of work. It’s going to take a leap of faith in order to find the right opportunity that checks off all of the boxes. Whatever feel you get from the interview, it will be like that at the job.
The last resort then is to find another job that checks off all of those boxes. I’m currently at a forever job where the only way that I want to leave is if the company fires me. Otherwise, I want to provide my labor, time, and employment to them and give them everything that I’ve got.
They are very slim. However, there are companies out there who can give you exactly what you are looking for. You can find them.
Stop Working So Much or You’ll Regret It
No one ever wished they worked harder at their jobs on their death bed. The vast majority of people wishes they didn’t work so much. If you don’t recognize where you are in your life, you’re going to regret it decades down the road. Stop working so much. Give your job a fair bit of effort.
However, there’s more important thing to do in life than to spend every waking moment day of your life working. You’re not ever going to escape work. However, that doesn’t mean you should dedicate that much time, effort, and energy into your work.
Stop working so much. Enjoy life along the way. Even the entrepreneurs who preach about working1 100 hours per week had a life outside of work. They preach that so they can motivate their employees to work and give their life for the company, the same as them. Because it makes the entrepreneurs richer.
When I was in my early 20’s, every weekend I worked was a rite of passage. I was happy to do so because I knew it was going to give me a better life down the road. Now that I’ve “proven” myself, I’m at a spot where I can afford to take it easy. Let me tell you, it feels amazing.
There’s more time to enjoy my life on the weekends. There’s actually time to pursue other interesting projects. Stop working and look up at the sun once in a while. You’ll start to realize that life is a pretty amazing thing. Turn off your computer. That “important” work email can wait.