Protecting Your Mental Health in the Workplace

In my previous workplaces, I had a really bad habit - in my excitement to complete projects, I would over-commit myself pretty hard. Whether it be about the amount of work or the time in which I would complete it, I always burned my candle at both ends, which often and frequently led to burnout.

Managing mental health is a daily battle. Trying to keep yourself sane in a corporate environment that touts the cancer known as the "growth mindset" is a near-impossible task. To keep it somewhat manageable, you need to have a strong delineation between what you can and cannot control.

What can you control?

It's important that you understand the ins and outs of your job. Most jobs can be boiled down to a handful of repeating task types. Each of those task types can be timed, analyzed, and optimized. Studying your task types gives you crucial data. That data helps you prevent yourself from over-committing.

Once you understand how long a task takes, always ALWAYS give yourself a time buffer when committing to it. If something takes you 4 hours to complete, give yourself 6 hours. Not only does this give you an important buffer in case things go wrong, but it helps you underpromise and overdeliver - a tried and true strategy for stakeholder satisfaction. It's important to set your stakeholder's or customer's expectations at a reasonable level.

This makes it possible for you to exceed expectations while preventing yourself from burning the candle at both ends.

Secondly, your working hours must be clearly defined. Maintaining working hours provides the all-important work-life balance that we talk about. At my previous gig, by the end I was working till 4 AM every day, going to bed, waking up at 11, and starting work almost immediately. This was my routine every day for a month, and it was only because I had overcommitted myself to a number of projects.

It took me 3 months and medical intervention to get my sleep cycle back in order.

More is not better, better is better. It's when we try to continuously grow, continuously improve, that we are unable to give ourselves time to recover from the accumulated stress of our work done. We don't give ourselves time to appreciate or celebrate our victories; we just move on to the next task, and the next, and the next.

Adjust your personal goals - it's perfectly fine to be satisfied with where you are.

What you cannot control

Finally, it is important to understand when deteriorating mental health transitions into mental illness. When you feel like your life is spiraling out of control and you are unable to pull yourself out of it, chances are you need help.

I have personally benefited greatly from psychotherapy (talk therapy) and psychiatry (medical intervention). For most people, psychiatric help isn't necessary in dealing with work burnout.

Talk therapy however, is for everyone. If you haven't tried it yourself, I highly recommend it. Access can be costly, but talking to a therapist once a month might be feasible for most working people.

Summary

• Managing mental health is a daily battle.
• Studying your task types gives you crucial data that helps prevent over-commitment.
• ALWAYS give yourself a time buffer when committing to work.
• Strictly maintaining working hours provides work-life balance.
• Adjust your personal goals. It's okay to be satisfied with where you are.
• Understand when deteriorating mental health transitions into mental illness.
• More is not better; better is better.

All the best!