Do you work late or on weekends without needing to? Do you find it difficult to disconnect from work and feel anxious when you are not working? You might be a workaholic. The line between being dedicated to your work and becoming a workaholic can often blur. While dedication is essential for career growth, being a workaholic can lead to burnout, strained relationships, guilt, and long-term health issues. But how can you identify if you’re a workaholic, and more importantly, what steps can you take to break the cycle?
What Is Workaholism?
Workaholism goes beyond working long hours. According to an article by Harvard Business Review, workaholics feel an internal compulsion to work even when they’re not required to. It becomes a coping mechanism for managing anxiety, self-doubt, or avoiding life’s complexities. While it is not a clinical diagnosis — it’s not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM- studies show there are common behaviors. As you are constantly stressed, aware of time and feel pressure to get things done, it can have severe physical and mental consequences like insomnia, depression, and chronic fatigue.
Steps to Overcome Workaholism
1) Acknowledge the Problem
The first step to overcoming workaholism is recognizing it. Reflect on your habits and ask yourself why you feel the need to work excessively. Is it driven by fear of failure, insecurity, or a desire for approval? If you have imposter syndrome or fall into the Unrelenting Standards schema described by Young, you may feel that you are a failure if you don’t meet your high standards, so a way to escape that feeling is to overwork. Reach out to our career coach to help you understand if the way you work is helping you or not in the long term.
2) Redefine “Urgent”
Seeing everything as urgent and responding to messages at all hours can become addictive, as these notifications trigger spikes in adrenaline and dopamine, keeping you in a constant state of fight-or-flight. While this heightened state of focus might help you thrive temporarily, long-term exposure to chronic stress is unsustainable.
To combat this, start by prioritizing your emails and tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix or the 4Ds method: Delete, Delegate, Defer, or Do. Resist the urge to treat every task as a “Do now.” This approach forces you to assess the true urgency of each task, helping you regain control of your time and energy.
3. Learn to Say “No” and Delegate
As a workaholic, you may struggle to delegate tasks. Adding tasks to your to-do list can be just as rewarding as completing them because it gives you a dopamine boost. You may often avoid delegating because you are a perfectionist and believe you can do the task better and faster. To help yourself say no, establish specific topics and times when you should decline. For example, you can decide not to take on new tasks after 6 pm or on Sundays. You can also limit yourself to only accepting tasks in which you are an expert.
4) Set Realistic Deadlines
Workaholics often underestimate how long tasks take, leading them to overcommit and set unrealistic timelines. Set a specific time to begin a task and use a timer to measure how long it actually takes to do it. It may seem complex to do, but I recommend using task management apps with embedded timers and replacing your to-do list with timeboxing. Do this at least for a week to assess how off you are. Identify if there are some tasks that you tend to underestimate or spend more time on, usually creative or complex tasks. To make it easier, estimate 50% to 100% extra time. For example, if you can finish something in one hour, estimate at least 1.5 hours and schedule it on your calendar to better plan your day.
5) Manage Your Self-talk
Your self-talk is probably what keeps you moving from one task to another and prioritizing work over spending time with your family or watching a movie. You may convince yourself that people need you, or if you don’t complete X, you won’t get Y, or you will be delayed. Talk to yourself with compassion, as if you were your best friend, challenging those assumptions to identify what is real and what is overreacting or extreme.
6) Embrace Rest
While it may be challenging to prioritize rest with a lengthy to-do list, it’s essential to maintain a consistent night routine, going to bed and waking up simultaneously every day. Burnout management coach Emily Ballesteros suggests that “You need to incorporate rest into your waking hours by engaging in non-work related activity that you enjoy, including physical activity and relaxation.
Finding balance
Being a workaholic doesn’t necessarily mean you are a high achiever; it might indicate that you are seeking something else, such as attention or using work to escape. Remember that working harder won’t solve the underlying issue. Long-term success requires balance, which means making time for personal growth, relationships, and hobbies outside of work. By addressing workaholism, you improve your well-being and become more productive in the long term and set a positive example for those around you.
Your environment, other people, and circumstances will always be unpredictable. Instead, focus on mastering yourself. recah out to schedule a career coaching session today.
