Our modern community, for some reason, willingly accepts the concept of overtime work. People have to work longer and harder to achieve good results and become successful. Let us check the widespread consequences of this statement and see if they make sense.

Overtime Work Is Necessary

It is the first myth people often consider truthful. They usually think that if some job was not done in time, then they have to work longer to make it. It is a truth, but not all the truth.

The main reason why overtime work is even needed is missing or inaccurate planning. Suppose a project manager (or any other person who estimates the work) did not have enough time or possibility to check the work scope, split it into tasks, and adequately evaluate it. In that case, overtime work may be required. However, when the work scope is planned according to the best practices, the chance to work overtime is minimal.

There are many best practices for accurate evaluation — collecting statistics, calculating accuracy, using story points, etc. Check them out and see which ones will work best for you.

Pressure And Stress Are Normal

It is another common misunderstanding that has similar roots. People feel pressure when they have too much work or tasks to do, and they do not know when and how to do that. So, feeling of pressure is a consequence of inadequate or poor work organization. The solution is typical — split the work into smaller tasks, set a timebox for each one, order them according to priority, and see which tasks you can do.

There are many sources of stress, and we have already covered how to deal with two of them — overtime work and lack of organization. However, there are many others, namely: lack of time for personal life, issues related to work-life balance, poor health, etc. The primary way to deal with stress is to find the root cause and eliminate it. Sometimes it may be easy and quick to do; in other cases it may take significant effort and several months to address the problem. The best practice here is similar to medical treatment — find the root issue, fix it, and then address consequences.

Hard Work Leads To Success

It is not a myth but rather a misconception. Indeed, successful people work hard, and there are tons of examples that confirm that. However, it does not mean that you will be successful if you are going to work hard.

It usually helps to understand what exactly you need to do before working hard to achieve that. A vision is one of the main concepts that can define the goal. Only then, having the goal, you may start working on building the plan to achieve that goal.

However, the goal and the plan are not enough for success. There are lots and lots of other factors — good team, communication, internal and external relations, marketing, and a great portion of luck. That is when overtime work may be required, but it can not guarantee a successful finish and overall success. Such a project may fail in many ways, and you need to accept that fact and be ready for it. The best practice here is to consider hard work as experience and investment into your future and think about success as the desired bonus.

Here are three common sources of misunderstanding about overtime work. Think about them the next time you will work extra hours to understand the process and the consequences.