Leave the office on time and dont take your work home

Leave the amtsstube on time and dont take your work homeLeave the office on time and dont take your work homeThese two lessons are true for every person who wants a long, happy, and satisfying career.But its very hard to put that advice into practice. It took me the first six years of my career to figure that out. And I still have to remind myself that life is bigger than work.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreAlmost everywhere that Ive worked in the past, there was aperception is realityculture.That means looks are more important than reality. In other words The person whos in the office the longest appears to be the hardest worker. Now, that may be true.But thats notlage what matters.We all know that the only thing that counts is results.However, we collectively insist on looking at vanity factors like participation in meetings, hours spent at the office, and how fast people res pond to emails.Its pathetic. At our family business, we encourage everyone to leave when they are done for the day. Weve learned that focusing on priorities is a much better metric than only looking at the hours someone works.And still, people find it uncomfortable to say, Ive finished my top priorities, Im going home. I get it. When you work in a group, you dont want to make others feel bad or that things are unfair.But think about why youre working in the first place. Youre there to contribute. To your own company, or the company you work for.Working too long is unproductiveNow, Im sure people love to be in your presence for 10 hours a day, but that doesnt mean you have to stick around so long that you become unproductive. Because thats one of the main reasons weve stopped working standard 9 or 10 hour days. Its useless.Theres a large body ofresearchthat proves working long hours is counterproductive.Working too much and the stress that goes along with it can lead to depression, s leep problems, impaired memory, and even heart disease.You get the idea. Thats why my first rule of work is thisLeave ontimeThe other day I was talking to my mentor about how great it is to love your job. He said Ive never had a job in my life that I didnt love. Its one of the most gratifying things in life.But like my mother always says, too much of agoodthing becomesbad. I believe thats the same with work. Now, Im not talking about intensity.Dont get me wrong,I work my acetylsalicylsure off.Always have done. But just dont go on for too long.The art of working hard is knowing when to quit. But like my mentor told me, thats very hard My biggest problem was that I worked too much. I left the house at 7 AM and came back 11 PM. Thats too much.You must protect yourself against too much work.And its straightforward. Just leave the office on time.Whether you love your job or not - it doesnt matter. When its time to go home, GONo one needs you to be at the office 24/7. Only your selbst do es. Honestly, the office will be here tomorrow. Your co-workers will still be alive. Your company will not go bust.Work is about achieving results. If you cant do that in 68 hours a day, youre not effective. So instead of working overtime,read a bookon personal effectivenessor get productivity training.Leave your work atworkBut dont just go home and bring your work with you. That defeats the whole purpose.No one thinks its cool when youre closing deals on the phone at dinner. Youre also not doing yourself a service by continually thinking about work when youre at home.Relax a bit. Play some Call of Duty. Cook dinner for your spouse. Take the kids for a walk. Whatever.Look, living a happy life is very simple. Its all within our control. We can decide what makes us happy. I have printed thisMarcus Aurelius quoteon my journal to remind me of thatVery little is needed to make a happy life it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.We all know that money, success, fame, or recogn ition, by themselves, dont make us happy. And yet, we work too much to obtain those things that dont even make us happy in the first place.So why do we keep working too much that it hurts us?It could be our ego. Maybe we just cant help ourselves. Its different for every person. Personally, I dont care about the reason. All I know is that too much work has a negative impact on the quality of your life and work.What matters is that we protect ourselves from our own stupidity. Were just like kids. We need rules to live happily and safely.Thats why the first rule of work is that we leave the office on time. The second rule is that we dont take our work home.And the third rule? Lets not worry about that for now. Well get to that another time. Its time for me to go home.This column was originally published on DariusForoux.com.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lesso ns from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong peopleLeave the office on time and dont take your work homeThese two lessons are true for every person who wants a long, happy, and satisfying career.But its very hard to put that advice into practice. It took me the first six years of my career to figure that out. And I still have to remind myself that life is bigger than work.Almost everywhere that Ive worked in the past, there was aperception is realityculture.That means looks are more important than reality. In other words The person whos in the office the longest appears to be the hardest worker. Now, that may be true.But thats not what matters.We all know that the only thing that counts is results.However, we collectively insist on looking at vanity factors like participation in meetings, hours spent at the office, and how fast people respond to emails.Its pathetic. At our family business, we encourage everyone to leave when they are done for the day. Weve learned that focusing on priorities is a much better metric than only looking at the hours someone works.And still, people find it uncomfortable to say, Ive finished my top priorities, Im going home. I get it. When you work in a group, you dont want to make others feel bad or that things are unfair.But think about why youre working in the first place. Youre there to contribute. To your own company, or the company you work for.Working too long is unproductiveNow, Im sure people love to be in your presence for 10 hours a day, but that doesnt mean you have to stick around so long that you become unproductive. Because thats one of the main reasons weve stopped working standard 9 or 10 hour days. Its useless.Theres a large body ofresearchthat proves working long hours is counterproductive.Working too much and the stress that goes along with it can lead to depression, sleep problems, imp aired memory, and even heart disease.You get the idea. Thats why my first rule of work is thisLeave ontimeThe other day I was talking to my mentor about how great it is to love your job. He said Ive never had a job in my life that I didnt love. Its one of the most gratifying things in life.But like my mother always says, too much of agoodthing becomesbad. I believe thats the same with work. Now, Im not talking about intensity.Dont get me wrong,I work my ass off.Always have done. But just dont go on for too long.The art of working hard is knowing when to quit. But like my mentor told me, thats very hard My biggest problem was that I worked too much. I left the house at 7 AM and came back 11 PM. Thats too much.You must protect yourself against too much work.And its straightforward. Just leave the office on time.Whether you love your job or not - it doesnt matter. When its time to go home, GONo one needs you to be at the office 24/7. Only your ego does. Honestly, the office will be he re tomorrow. Your co-workers will still be alive. You company will not go bust.Work is about achieving results. If you cant do that in 68 hours a day, youre not effective. So instead of working overtime,read a book on personal effectivenessor get productivity training.Leave your work atworkBut dont just go home and bring your work with you. That defeats the whole purpose.No one thinks its cool when youre closing deals on the phone at dinner. Youre also not doing yourself a service by continually thinking about work when youre at home.Relax a bit. Play some Call of Duty. Cook dinner for your spouse. Take the kids for a walk. Whatever.Look, living a happy life is very simple. Its all within our control. We can decide what makes us happy. I have printed thisMarcus Aurelius quoteon my journal to remind me of thatVery little is needed to make a happy life it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.We all know that money, success, fame, or recognition, by themselves, dont make us happy. And yet, we work too much to obtain those things that dont even make us happy in the first place.So why do we keep working too much that it hurts us?It could be our ego. Maybe we just cant help ourselves. Its different for every person. Personally, I dont care about the reason. All I know is that too much work has a negative impact on the quality of your life and work.What matters is that we protect ourselves from our own stupidity. Were just like kids. We need rules to live happily and safely.Thats why the first rule of work is that we leave the office on time. The second rule is that we dont take our work home.And the third rule? Lets not worry about that for now. Well get to that another time. Its time for me to go home.This column was originally published on DariusForoux.com.