Why Working Non-Stop Doesn't Lead To Your Best Work

Many people get the idea that performing their best work on projects and tasks requires them to work non-stop on it, outside of possibly a quick bite to eat and maybe sleeping for a few hours.  However, employing such a practice in completing your projects and tasks will likely lead to lower-quality work and damage your profitability, credibility, and reputation.

When you go with a “work at all costs” mentality to get your tasks and projects done, you suffer physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.  If all you’re doing is working non-stop, you are taking time away from eating healthy, working out, spending time with family and friends, doing leisurely activities, and getting enough sleep.  All of these missing factors will likely lead to a reduction in your work quality because you need to have a well-balanced life to continue producing work at a high level.

If you stop eating meals, you don’t get the proper nutrition you need to stay healthy and focused on your work.  If you don’t exercise regularly, your health will suffer, both physically and mentally, leading to a decline in your work quality.  If you stop spending time with family and friends, you’re likely to become bored with your work and lose focus because work is all that you’re doing.  If you stop doing leisurely activities, you’ll become even more bored with your work, lose focus, and even become resentful of your work because it is all that you are doing.  If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to focus enough on your work to make it of high-enough quality to where it stands out and gets you noticed by your employers, your peers, your customers, and/or your target markets.

Living a balanced life where work is part of it, not all of it, is key to producing your best-quality work.  Being dedicated to your work and your business is a good thing; being obsessive about it to where you exclude and neglect everything is not.  You will suffer damage physically, mentally, emotionally, and/or socially from neglecting other areas of your life to focus more on your work, and your work quality will suffer over time.  In addition, you won’t be happy with working all of the time and doing nothing else, so much so that you may even resent your work.  Therefore, having a healthy balance of work and other aspects of life is key to producing your best work on a consistent basis.