HBR Guides to Managing Your Career Collection (6 Books)

CHAPTER 6

Stop Work Overload by Setting These Boundaries

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Why is it that when your friends, your significant other, and especially your mom tell you, You need to stop working so much!—you hesitate? On the one hand, you know they have a point. It’s unsustainable to pull 12- to 14-hour days on a consistent basis, and you feel burned out and cranky. But when it comes to setting bound aries, you stall and tell yourself and others, “It’s just a busy time. It will get better soon. . . .”

But, it doesn’t. And you find yourself wedged between the fact that you can’t seem to get everything done and the feeling that maybe the problem isn’t the situation—it’s you. You feel guilty that everyone else seems to complete everything, ...