In college, it’s normal to overwork yourself. We have classes, jobs, homework and extracurricular activities that all demand time. 

In college, it’s easier to overwork yourself than it is to manage your time. 

However, it becomes a problem when students begin to measure their self-worth based on how busy they are. 

Many students begin to romanticize overworking. The more time and attention something demands, the more stressful it is and the more it grows in status.  

Most people have no problem overworking and are even proud of it. 

However, they don’t think about its harm to their personal life and health. 

Stress from overworking causes insomnia, lower immune system function, loss of sexual desire and can lead to mental health problems like depression and anxiety. 

Yet there seems to be a culture of coveting the same overwork and stress that is slowly causing our life to fade. 

There’s also a popular belief that time is money, which is taken far too seriously.

We love the idea of the American dream because it preaches that wealth and prosperity can be achieved with hard work and determination alone. 

Success is looked at through the lens of hard work.

But this is a toxic mentality and is mostly counterproductive. 

Working more hours only leads to fatigue and lower mental health. 

 Fatigue makes learning and remembering new things hard, which means the quality of work being produced is lower, according to eLearning Industry. 

Constant work without breaks and vacation to decompress our mind leads to burnout. We eventually start to hate the job we were once passionate about. 

Hard work is not bad but we must be able to distinguish between quality and quantity of work. 

If you hear someone boasting about how hard they work, don’t forget to stop them and tell them that they are spreading a toxic work culture in which people are exploited. 

We shouldn’t associate overwork with pride, happiness, and self-worth because all it is doing is exhausting ourselves.