How to know if you are becoming a slave of your work? How to find out if work is taking more attention than needed? How to know that your life is suffering because of excessive work and thoughts of work? For any work slave his/her enjoyment is in work. Ask a work slave to get away from work for a short time and he/she will read out a list of what all work is still pending. Let us test if you are a work slave?

Take a typical day. Find out how many hours you spend working, traveling, with family, watching television, and other activities. Except on the holidays, how much percentage of your time is spent on work? Is it more than seventy percent? Are you giving enough quality time to your friends and family during weekdays or they get to talk to you only on holidays? Please ask them and find out. Non-stop work also decreases our efficiency. Is that happening to you? Here is a small test. Suppose you leave your worktable for some time, do you feel like going back to it as soon as possible?

How to decide the optimum time required for work? How to find out if we are not becoming its slave at the cost of everything else? Can there be any standards? Difficult. Why don't you find out few friends who are happy and are successful? Talk to them about their work style and time devoted to work. List out your life goals and decide about how much time, energy and attention you should give to work.

A balanced proportion between work, entertainment, time to be spent with friends and family, hobbies, social work and other activities has to be maintained. Concentrating only on one activity creates unhappiness in life. A balanced time division will feel you satisfied in all the areas of your life and lead to growth and better quality of living.