How to be a workaholic without killing yourself

By Lisa LaMotta

updated 7:17 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2007

Robert Berman works 60 to 70 hours a week. When the 59-year-old communications consultant from Toronto is on one of his frequent business trips, he often “fails to acknowledge that it’s Friday” and works through the weekends for weeks at a time. He’s missed birthdays with his kids and anniversaries with his wife of 38 years. He even missed his daughter’s high school graduation.

“According to most people I know, I was born a workaholic,” Berman says. “I enjoy doing what I do. I prefer to do business 24 hours a day if I can.”

Workaholics are common. These people are often compelled, and even excited, to be at work more than social situations, whether they enjoy what they do or not. United States workers put in an average of 1,804 hours of work in 2006. That's a lot less than some countries — Korea topped the list with 2,305 hours — but it's still almost 300 more hours than the average Frenchman works.

Yet, those long hours don’t have to wreak havoc on your life, and there are ways to make your time more enjoyable (and more efficient), both in the office and out.

It all begins before you get to the office with a full night’s rest. “Be sure you are getting enough sleep. You can trade sleep for more work hours, but chances are you won’t work as well if you aren’t 100 percent,” says Gwenith G. Fisher, Ph.D., an assistant research scientist at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. “Recent research shows that a short nap can be a great way to re-energize during the day without making it too difficult to sleep at night.”

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Power naps, typically 20 to 30 minutes, during the work day, can keep you at the top of your game, but are often frowned upon by the corporate machine. It’s best to shut the office door when catching a snooze, but if you're cubicle-bound, take a 20-minute nap at a place like MetroNaps in New York City, which provides futuristic-looking EnergyPods for a small fee.

Keeping a regular exercise regimen can keep you from losing your cool at the office. Exercise not only keeps your body in shape, but it relieves tension in your muscles and relaxes your mind. Alan Meltzer, CEO of Bethesda, Md.-based insurance agency The Meltzer Group, regularly starts work at 5:30 a.m. and usually doesn’t make it out of the office until after 7 p.m. every night, but his time at the gym keeps him sane.

“I work out every morning at 4 a.m.,” says Meltzer. “I usually read on the elliptical. Or I just started learning Hebrew, and I practice saying the words and learning the tenses.”

Meltzer has been learning Hebrew for the past two years as a way to pass the time and keep his thoughts from straying to work on his downtime. “Some people devote more time to work to fill gaps of time. Find a hobby and spend more time doing something that interests you,” says Fisher of the Institute for Social Research.

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