Workaholic or a High Achiever: Which One Are You?
Think that’s a strange question?
It’s not.
A big productivity myth is that if you work as hard as possible, you will achieve something great. Working hard is important, but not all workaholics will become high achievers. A high achiever is someone who is consistently achieving results that have a major impact vs. the workaholic who is on an endless treadmill of “to do’s” that don’t amount to much.
I’m defining a workaholic as someone who rarely puts down their work. And when they do, they feel really guilty and anxious about it. In the tech and startup world we tend to place an undue amount of value on workaholism and it can be a real point of pride to be a “workaholic”. You might hear pseudo-bragging disguised as complaining like “I don’t sleep”, “work is just sooo crazy right now”, or “this is my 4th cold brew today.”
A workaholic typically experiences a great deal of anxiety that shows up in their actions, such as constantly checking their emails, Slacks, voicemail and texts. As a result, they may feel incredibly overwhelmed and even frozen, but they push through it and work, work, work. (Or at least it looks like work when in fact it may just be staying busy with a bunch of unimportant, unprioritized tasks.)
So, how does the workaholic arrive at this anxious place?
The short answer is that the workaholic’s mindset often stems from FEAR of failure. Their whole sense of self-worth is tied up in whether or not they are successful. That is a lot of stress to be working under. If you were to peek into their thoughts, they might look something like “Don’t mess this up. If you do, people will find out you’re a fraud and you’ll fail. If you fail, then you’re worthless.” This may sound extreme, but it’s actually a really common train of thought. Workaholics may not be aware of it because they are too busy working to notice, but these are often the feelings driving their behavior.
As a result, this negative self-talk drops the workaholic into a downward spiral of unnecessary activity that, if they were to be honest with themselves, gives them a bit of a rush.
All that text- and email-checking… all that busy work… encourages the workaholic to FEEL important. All those pings and dings tend to make us feel important… like we truly matter, and they distract from that fear of failing. They also sometimes make us feel like we’re getting something important done when we’re actually not.
The truth is that when we are constantly checking notifications, we can’t use that time to be strategic and creative. That type of work is where our biggest results will come from and it requires space, time and focus. You need it to make your company or personal brand stand out.
Being a workaholic doesn’t just mean we lose the ability to be strategic and creative. We actually become less productive over time. Many studies have shown that our productivity decreases after a certain number of hours in the work week. Our brains need recovery time to function at its highest and most productive!
The workaholic, therefore, may lose their creative problem-solving abilities and other focus-centric skills that keep them competitive. They’re the building blocks to actually become a high achiever.
Stress and burnout are not badges of honor. In fact, they are likely hurting your performance. Ask yourself how often you feel or verbalize that you’re burned out or super stressed. Is it a lot? Then you might be a workaholic and need to adjust your sails.
Now let’s talk about how the workaholic is different from the high achiever…
The high achiever works hard AND they achieve meaningful, important results– results that can actually shift the course of a product or the world. The high achiever takes pride in their work AND takes time to stop and envision their goals clearly. The high achiever asks themselves insightful questions about what they are doing in their work, why they are doing it and what it will look like to the world. If something is not key to making their goals happen, chances are it is not going to get their attention. They know where to put their laser focus to get the biggest results because they’ve taken the time to prioritize and, equally important, to de-prioritize. In contrast, the workaholic is just going to let their inbox/slacks dictate their priorities for the day.
When I start feeling overwhelmed and stressed in my work, I stop and breathe. Instead of spinning out about tasks I need to do in a day, I get present to my goals and write down the #1 thing that needs to happen today.
I also give up trying to be perfect. Instead of obsessing over an email or a response, I set myself a 5 minute timer and let it be good enough. That way, when something truly important is on my plate, I have the time, energy and focus to be excellent.
High achievers have other winning characteristics as well. For example…
The high achiever knows that it’s okay to say NO. They focus on the most important tasks and prioritize like a ninja! Conversely, the workaholic will likely say YES, even when the request is unrealistic or will take too much of their focus away from other, more important projects or goals. A high achiever knows that answering their Slack or email messages every two minutes is counterproductive. Setting specific times during the work day (aka “batching”) to check messages is best.
The high achiever doesn’t believe they have to do everything on their own. They know the value of a team! They know how to gather the right team members to get jobs done, too. Sure, they may guide them, but high achievers know not to micromanage them. The high achiever’s team is good at what they do and the high achiever trusts them to get the job done as established in their plan of action.
The truth is that no one gets to goals on their own.
If a workaholic tells you they had to do every part of a project themselves and couldn’t delegate tasks to anyone to help them… or even ask for help in the first place… you’ll know that’s not truly the case. We can all ask for assistance. We have to let go of the reins and be a guiding force vs. a controlling force. There is a difference. The high achiever knows it.
In the end, you can choose to be a workaholic who spends a whole lot of time keeping busy and appearing busy. You can continue feeling overwhelmed and tired all the time as you check messages, social media comments and emails 800 times a day. That’s certainly your prerogative.
However, you can also choose to be a high achiever and assess your highest leverage points every single day. That way, you get to achieve results AND enjoy your life, not to mention, keep your health and sanity.
If anything in this article resonates with you, maybe I can help you be more efficient and productive in positive ways in your business. Schedule a quick call with me here and let’s get the ball rolling.