A Lesson on Self-Care and Listening to Yourself

Happy Monday everyone!

This Motivational Monday blog post is a reflection on something that I’ve always struggled with - self care and listening to my own body when it says it has had enough. I am infamous for accepting more work than I should, for sacrificing my sleep (or sanity) to get things done, and for forgetting to eat when I’m busy. These actions are NOT okay, and they can be damaging to your health if continuously done.

Unfortunately, these are common symptoms of entrepreneurs, work-from-home employees, and highly-driven individuals. I just happen to fall into all three of these categories.

Where did the 40 hour work week come from?

Excessively long work hours stemmed from the Industrial Revolution when manufacturing businesses were in the boom. The individuals worked immense amounts of time in one week, causing people to push Congress to mandate labor laws. Individuals typically worked six days a week and fit in a god-awful amount of hours in those six days.

Henry Ford decided to cut one of those days out, and made his employees work 40 hours a week, for only five days. This was 48 hours less, and one day less, than the standard amount around him. Even back then, he noticed an increase of productivity with a REDUCTION of hours, not an addition of hours.

Congress finally jumped on board and passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. This introduced overtime pay for employees working more than 44 hours a week, which was amended to 40 hours a week two years later, and made a U.S. law in 1940.

This is a high-level recap of where the 40-hour work week came from. Spoke does a great job explaining the history of the 40-hour work week in their blog post “Is 40 Hours a Week Too Much? Here’s What History and Science Say”.

This article discusses both sides of the long-hours situation. First, it discusses the impact that long hours has on a company. Yes, it might look like the impact on the surface is a better bottom line, but it also addresses that it might cost a business more. These extra expenses can be seen by medical healthcare payouts to insurance to address employees seeing doctors about smoking, stress, exercise, depression and other medical issues related to long hours.

The article then flips and discusses the impact that working long hours as on the employees. It talks about how individuals trade their healthy choices for non-healthy options so they can answer one more call or attend one more meeting. (Their example included grabbing a bag of chips and working through lunch - slowly raises hand - that’s me people…)

Let’s talk about sleep - or lack thereof

When people talk about working long hours, the first consequence they often think of is sleep. Many people face a lack of sleep when they work long hours, and the impact to their health and relationship is great. It’s so great that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with the United States Department of Labor, has an article on the effects of working long hours.

This article discusses worker fatigue, the effects of demanding work schedules, and how fatigue affects the employees safety and health. While this article is written primarily for individuals with irregular and extended shifts (think the medical field and safety field like police, fire and military), the impacts can be felt in anyone who works extended hours.

The thing that stands out for me is that this article lists things that fatigue can cause, like irritability, reduced alertness, and lack of motivation. It also lists things that the fatigue is linked to, like heart disease, depression, sleep disorders, and reproductive problems.

Personal Reflection

Working long hours and fatigue are always on my mind. Like I mentioned in my introduction, I am infamous for taking bigger bites than I should. It’s not that I can’t handle those big bites - it’s that I shouldn’t. I struggle with sleep issues, and I’m not doing myself any favors by cramming in more work and reducing sleep. I’ve seen it affect myself, my relationship with my husband, and my relationship with my children. I’ve also seen how fatigue can affect me making mistakes, minor mistakes, that I know on a good day I’d NEVER make.

I want to leave you with this: yes, there is a saying that, as an entrepreneur, you should be working an insane amount of hours so you can hardly work in the future. However, what you may not be hearing is that many successful entrepreneurs value self care and build it into their busy days. It is non-negotiable for many of them, and is one of their highest priorities. I don’t know about you, but if successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Stephen Gillett (co-founder of Starbucks) can find time for self care, then I can too.

If you’re needing motivation on how to fit self care into your day, check out Entrepreneur.com’s article, “8 Self-Care Tips from Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs”.