Why You Should Stop Working Late

You’ve probably heard people say that social media never sleeps. That may be true—but the people behind all the cute graphics and funny captions do! Here at Gradient, we make sure to set boundaries to keep our work from bleeding into our personal lives. We think it’s important to create a healthy work-life balance, and we advocate strongly against working over 40 hours in a week. Here’s why:

You need a break

Whether or not you realize it, keeping your brain turned on for those extra hours is exhausting you! When you expend extra time and emotional energy at work, you have less to give to your friends and family. That drain can also affect your health—people who aren’t well-rested have been proven to get sick more often. 

It’s bad for productivity

Working long hours doesn’t always mean you get more done. In fact, shorter, undistracted hours can make you far more productive! Try turning off any distractions (yes, we mean your phone) and spending 30 minutes focused on a task. We guarantee you’ll get more done than you thought you could! 

Your work should fit into your work day

If you get to the end of your work day and you constantly have unfinished tasks, it’s not you—it’s the job! Talk to your manager about your workload and make sure you’re assigned responsibilities that can reasonably fit into a 40 hour work week. People aren’t workhorses, and we shouldn’t be treated like it!

You deserve to live your life

Why are you working? So you can travel? So you can have a fancy dinner with friends? You can’t do any of that if you’re always at the office! Don’t work your life away. There shouldn’t be a magic age that you get to retire and then have fun. You deserve to enjoy every stage of life, even while you’re working hard!

Do you have a healthy work life balance? If not, now is the time to start thinking about how you can make a change!