he average person works about 45 hours a week, but the most demanding careers often require 60 or more hours of commitment.
And that's not even including the mental load. Coming home at seven o'clock, feeling exhausted, knowing that you have just a few hours to spend with your family before you get ready to do it all again the next day.
In situations where balance feels next to impossible, it's uniquely important to prioritize your mental health.
In this article, we take a look at how you can achieve health and wellness even in situations where your career feels overwhelming.
Step One: Inventory Your Time
Taking a moment to evaluate where your time is going is an important first step in that it can provide clarity and perspective. Figure out how many hours you spend at work, how many hours you spend asleep, how many hours you spend reading, watching TV, talking to your friends, family, children, how much time you spend on your phone, and so on.
Why does this matter? Having a number for where your time is going can make it easier to spot places where adjustments are possible.
Maybe you can't do anything about the 60 hours a week you spend working, or maybe upon review, you'll find that actually, you're not on the job quite as often as it feels.
You'll also find that inventorying your time is a great way to make the most of whatever's left to you. If you're spending six hours a week scrolling on your phone, that might be time you'd rather put into family experiences.
If you're spending two hours watching television, maybe that's time that could be better used for exercise or mindfulness behaviors.
You don't necessarily need to change everything, or for that matter, anything. But at least once you've determined where your time is going, you can understand the realities of your situation.
Step Two: Identify Ways to Set Boundaries
Sometimes there might be simple fixes to the feeling that you're always working.
For example, do you check your email before going to bed? Even if you're not doing work, you're still giving it space in your mind, which, from an experiential standpoint, is almost the same thing.
Are you answering texts from clients or your boss during dinner with your family?
Are you thinking about work more than you need to? Even that can have a big influence on your lived experience.
The more headspace work takes up, the more it's dominating your life.
When you're on the clock, dial in. When you're not, step out.
It might also be worth considering how efficiently you're using your time while you're on the job.
Sometimes feeling like you're always overwhelmed is actually the byproduct of inadequately applying the time you do have for work.
For example, do you refresh your Facebook feed every 15 minutes or scroll through Instagram or spend idle time on your phone while you're on the job?
These behaviors are certainly very common, but they can lead to less getting done, which consequently creates the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed.
Try to optimize your professional time so that you can have more freedom over your personal time.
Some productivity techniques are ideal for people who are easily distracted.
For example, the Pomodoro technique prioritizes short bursts of productivity over long marathon work sessions.
During the Pomodoro, you will set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes, work as hard as you possibly can during that time without any interruption, and then rest for 10 to 15 minutes before doing it again.
In this way, you make the most of your time without exhausting yourself.
Step Three: Look for Balance in Your Routine
Prioritizing wellness is an important step to optimizing your overall mental health.
While it's not always easy, it is also often not as hard as people assume.
For example, it only takes about 30 minutes of physical activity per day to meet the doctor-recommended quantities.
Good sleep, though elusive for many adults, is also not as hard as you might assume. Averaging about seven hours a day is all it takes, which, depending on your schedule, could still allow you to keep relatively late hours if that's your habit.
Nutrition is primarily a matter of habit.
Eat healthy foods for more energy, increased focus, and better health.
Finally, work on mindfulness habits. Meditation may feel out of your element, but it's not as hard as many people assume and requires a relatively modest investment of time.
The key is not to change every aspect of your life, but rather to make moderate, targeted adjustments designed to optimize your overall health and wellness.
Just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's hard.
Step Four: Evaluate the Suitability of Your Career
It's possible that the problem is not your habits, but the job itself.
While there is certainly something to be said for all of the steps we've described up until this point, it's also true that you don't necessarily want a life you have to constantly cope with.
Rather, you should consider the value of prioritizing a career that doesn't make you feel burnt out and miserable.
Many people in their mid-30s to early 40s reach a point where they realize they're no longer happy with the jobs that they've been doing since their early 20s.
They often pivot into careers that are purposeful and impactful.
Nursing, social work, and education are all popular second careers for this exact reason.
The key is to figure out what works for you and do it.
Pivoting into a new career is often actually easier than most people assume.
While it will require some additional training, all of the jobs we described in this heading—nursing, education, and social work—have clear paths forward, particularly for people who already have a college degree.
If that's you, you may be able to get a teaching, nursing, or social work license within 18 months, provided you are able to pursue an accelerated opportunity.
Conclusion
Often, we go through life feeling stuck in routines that make us unhappy but never take any concrete steps to change our circumstances. Don't let that be you.
If you feel constantly burnt out, look for ways to reduce the stress in your life.
If your career is the source of your problems, it may be time to consider a new job.
Whatever the case, don't settle on a situation where feeling burnt out, exhausted, and overwhelmed is your baseline. You deserve better.
