Why Work-Life Balance Might Save Your Life
When successful online content creators say you’re not insane if you work twelve hours a day, do you believe them?
When they tell you work-life balance will obstruct your online success, do you trust them?
When they argue you should be obsessed, passionate, and even addicted to your work, do you start to eat your meals at the computer, skip exercise, and miss date night to squeeze in more creator time?
I didn’t make up these ideas. I read them in articles written by top content creators.
But where’s the scientific evidence to back up their claims?
No doubt they have positive intentions. They want to help you build your content business to its maximum potential. They’re excited to create day in, day out. And they haven’t suffered any major consequences—yet.
But how will their physical and mental health hold out on the long run? How will yours if you follow their advice?
The Potential Consequences of Overworking
Overworking might feel right in the moment. But it can have serious consequences on your physical and mental health down the road.
A 2018 World Health Organization study published in 2021 estimates:
“…that exposure to long working hours (≥55 hours/week) is a prevalent occupational risk factor, attributable for a large number of deaths and DALYs due to ischemic heart disease and stroke.”
DALY means “disability-adjusted life years.” A DALY represents the loss of years due to premature death and years of healthy life lost due to disability.
To say it plainly, work too much and you might die early or lose years of healthy life due to disability.
A 2016 Ohio State University study addresses the impact of working too much specifically on women:
“Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women.”
But surely this doesn’t apply to content creators who get to do thing own thing. Does it?
I haven’t seen a scientific study that measures the effect of overworking as a content creator.
But anecdotal evidence abounds.
Take the case of Christian Collins, a 23-year old YouTube video creator who had more than 2 million subscribers to his channel. He woke up at 5:00 am and worked until 1:00 am to produce content for a range of social media platforms.
What was the result?
“All I was doing was creating content. You get burnt out. I had more money than I could spend — and I was super depressed. I had to quit everything and take a break for two years.”—Christian Collins
But it’s not easy to take a break from any content platform ruled by an algorithm, where absence means a significant loss of views and income.
Drake McWhorter took a month off his YouTube channel to “get in a better head space.” It took him a full year to regain the number of views he had before the break.
“YouTube is a treadmill. If you stop for a second, you’re dead.”—Drake McWhorter
These content creators probably felt passionate about their work for the first few years too. But there’s no scientific evidence that passion, love, or addiction to work can protect you from the consequences of endless 12-hour workdays.
And YouTube is not an anomaly in the content creation world.
Writing platforms run the same merciless algorithms that can make you feel you have to keep going non-stop.
But do you really want to overwork and put your health and well-being at risk?
What Is Work-Life Balance Anyway?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, work-life balance means:
“The amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy.”
You can read countless articles on work-life balance and how to achieve it. But you won’t find a single one that describes work-life balance like a pie precisely cut into same size pieces.
Work-life balance doesn’t mean strictly portioning the same amount of time to every aspect of your life. It means finding a healthy balance between work and and other aspects of life, one that works for you.
How that looks can vary dramatically from one person to the next. And it can be very different in one season of your life compared to another.
There may be times when you decide to work more than play. That’s not automatically bad.
Maybe you’re getting a business off the ground or you have a special project that requires extra care. Young people are likely to have more energy and stamina to work into the night than those entering middle age.
It’s okay to have a consciously chosen “imbalance” between work and other aspects of life for a while. But don’t assume you can sustain it indefinitely.
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of work-life balance.
The key is to know yourself and decide what work-life balance looks like for you.
But when you do, it would be crazy not to take into account the detrimental consequences of overworking.
In a recent Forbes article, Maura Thomas, an expert in productivity and work-life balance, says:
“A variety of studies show that working more than 45 hours per week is detrimental to both physical and mental health.”
Considering using 45 hours or less as a guide to healthy work-life balance.
Concluding Thoughts
I feel angry when popular content creators rail against work-life balance. It’s a popular trend, but a dangerous one.
Their claims aren’t backed by scientific evidence. It’s just their personal story right now. They don’t know how their situation will look next year or the year after that.
Science shows that overwork can lead to premature death and healthy years lost due to disability.
That doesn’t mean you should give up on content creation as a profession.
If you want to be a successful content creator, learn to pace yourself. You might work extra hours to get a project off the ground. But don’t think you can work 12-hour days endlessly without consequences to your physical and mental health.
[Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels]
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