All Work and No Play...

By: Riya Mathews

“I’m going to lock myself in my room in an attempt to finish this article on time.”

Or

“I’ve been working on this article for the past 15 minutes and I feel exhausted. I may as well take

a break...for a few days. I deserve it.”

How many of us have found ourselves in one or both of these two - very different -

situations? From a short-term perspective, the worst possible outcome would probably only be a

lack of a proper night’s sleep or a poor mark on said article, respectively. Although, if either

behaviour stretches out into the long-term and becomes a regular occurrence in our lives, it could

lead to a lot more detrimental problems.

On the one hand, being a workaholic may earn you good grades on tests and assignments,

but at what cost? You end up becoming a sleep deprived zombie who can’t keep their eyes open

in class and has to work 10x harder to keep up with the material. Non-stop working without any

breaks creates added stress and pressure that takes a toll on your mental and physical health.

When you push yourself too hard, you lose a lot of energy and motivation to do anything outside

of your work. Work becomes the top priority in your life and anything else simply becomes a

nuisance or an unnecessary distraction. Excessive focus on work also has the potential to

decrease productivity along with the quality of your work. Not only does living a workaholic

lifestyle drain your mental and physical health, it can also affect your personal relationships.

Consistently locking yourself in your room to work means that you spend less time with your

family and your friends. You may feel more isolated/disconnected from those around you.

On the other hand, what happens when you barely have a “work life”? This is a lot more

self explanatory. If we make our breaks and relaxation periods longer than our work period, we

end up lacking productivity and not working up to our full potential. If we let distractions

interfere with our work (whether that be school work or work/hobbies outside of school), we

inevitably fall short of our goals and aspirations. As David Bly puts it, “Striving for success

without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.” Though the work may

not seem appealing at the moment, our work and the effort we put into anything we do will say a

lot about the success we achieve in the future; it will say a lot about the impact we have on the

world and the legacy we choose to leave behind.

This article isn’t intended to tell you to stop the all-nighters or even the breaks you feel

you may need from time to time. It’s just a reminder to keep your life balanced as best as you

can. Sure, sometimes pulling an all nighter may be the only option if you need to hand in an

essay by the early morning. Sometimes, you may feel like you need a longer relaxation period

out of the blue for no particular reason. That’s ok and perfectly understandable. You just need to

be careful that it doesn’t become a consistent pattern that negatively interferes with other parts of

your life. Life is all about balance, and working towards a Work-Life balance in particular may

be something that will change your life for the better. So, what are you waiting for? No better

time than the present!