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In an age of information technology where we have a plethora of gadgets for this and that, a new study has revealed that more people than ever are working overtime.

This new trend is driven by employer purchased phones and laptops, which leave employees feeling pressured to remain on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Things are getting so serious that the study by the Australian Institute has created a new term: Time Pollution.

Time pollution
The Australian Institute study has shown that the line between personal time and work time is becoming more and more blurred, leading to a phenomenon it dubs ‘time pollution.’

According to the Institute, time pollution occurs when a worker’s personal time is eaten up or ‘polluted’ with work demands, driven by the creation of flexible work hours.

Workers on call 24/7
Despite our long-held notion of a 40 hour nine to five working week, many employees are now finding themselves on call 24/7.

As the demands of work and employer expectations rise, employees spend more time working from home in addition to the office.

The main culprits of time pollution and round the clock work hours are bosses themselves. The Australian Institute study found employees provided with  laptops or smartphones by their bosses  were more likely to feel they were constantly on call – often producing devastating effects on their health.

In fact, the study found that more than 6.8 million Australians are working during their personal hours.

Work life intrudes on personal life
One of the advantages of gadgets like smartphones is that they allow you to access emails anywhere, anytime.

The biggest disadvantage, of course, is that means you can access your work emails during your private time.

Thanks to technology, the line between work hours and personal hours is extremely blurred. We no longer start and finish at a set time or only have access to work information while in the office.

Technology now allows us to work from home or other remote destinations – which means we are more likely to work  in personal settings.

While the ability to work from home is certainly advantageous for some, for others it means always being at work.  It can therefore become difficult for employees  to distinguish between being at work and being at home.

The distraction of technology
Today’s technologies are often addictive and distracting. Email, SMS and phone calls, not to mention Facebook and Twitter, can make it more difficult for us to focus on our work, regardless of whether we’re working from home or in the office.

We’re regularly required to answer emails immediately regardless of the time of day, while the need to check our friends’ Facebook status can prove an addiction all of its own.

At no point in recent history has there been so many distractions fighting for a worker’s attention. This could be a primary reason why many employees find themselves working overtime at home in order to ‘catch up’ on work left unfinished during work hours.

Email over family
According to a study by Cambridge University, family life is taking a backseat to email and social media.

Gone are the days of family dinners to catch up on the family gossip – these days emails, SMS and status updates are used to keep family in the loop.

As a result, family members spend too much time each day catching up on personal emails and social media, distracting them from valuable family time.

Whether we like it or not, more of us are spending more time at work (unpaid) even when we’re at home. This not only impacts on our health but our social wellbeing too.

While it can be difficult to ‘switch off’ from work, especially if you’ve got a company phone and laptop, it’s important to do so for your physical, mental and social health.

So next time you find yourself checking your work email on a weekend, stop and tell yourself you’ll deal with it on Monday. You’ll be glad you did.

Written by Andrew Talati

A recent article by UK camping and caravan-ing website (www.campingandcaravanning.co.uk) claims campers are much happier than non-campers.

Not just a promotional exercise, the article raises some good points about the lifestyle differences between campers and non-campers. If it’s true that campers are happier (93% of campers say they are, according to the article), perhaps it’s time for all of us to get back in touch with nature and go camping for our next holiday.

Benefits of Camping
Far too many of us feel the pressure and stress of long work hours and understand the effects this can have on our health. Unfortunately, in this day and age, long work hours, poor diet and lack of exercise all seem to go hand in hand. And most of us are pretty miserable as a result.

Taking time off and getting away from the pressures of everyday life has its benefits. A survey conducted by the website found that campers tend to be more satisfied, optimistic, happier and energised while non-campers tended to be more stressed, bored, frustrated and lonely.

Enjoying Nature
One of the biggest benefits of camping is the opportunity to get back in touch with nature.

The fresh air,  peace and quiet (or the noise of wildlife as opposed to traffic!), time away from the office… these are all wonderful reasons to go camping.

People have turned to nature for centuries as a much needed getaway.  Nature has a wonderful  ability to calm and restore mind and body. Many campers say camping creates happy memories, allowing them to recharge their batteries, appreciate nature and expand their horizons, as well as provide fun for the family.

Exercising in the Great Outdoors
When it comes to camping, the opportunity to enjoy some outdoor exercise is a big plus.

In addition, to promoting family togetherness, rest and relaxation, helping children learn, social interaction and creating memories and family traditions, camping opens up a world of exercise possibilities.

You can get some good old-fashioned exercise from hiking through the bush to rock climbing, gathering fire wood to swimming, or wading in a creek. And, unlike working out in the gym, it won’t even feel like you’re exercising!

It seems that campers may be onto something. Camping’s many benefits – from  exercise to relaxation – make it worth packing up the tent and heading bush.

But camping’s benefits don’t come from a once a year trip. To really experience these benefits, try getting away as often as you can – your mind and body will be much happier for it!

There’s nothing quite like it to chill out, relax and remove all of the noise and distractions in our lives.

Written by Andrew Talati

Our busy urban lives are now being characterised by a new byproduct of our urban existence called urban stress syndrome or urban mental health syndrome.

With a reported 20% of the Australian population experiencing some form of mental disorder, our crazy lives are creating additional pressures on our mental health.

The modern lifestyle of our urban cities are creating additional stresses that impacts on our long term mental health; congested roads and public transport and the various forms of interaction we now have in the digital space, i.e. twitter, Facebook, social media, SMS, e-mails, mobile phones, we are stretching ourselves very thinly to cram everything into our day and spending more time getting from A to B.

On top of this our communities are moving from real life to cyberspace.

As our lives become increasingly busy we are becoming increasing isolated with our neighbours and family.

Whether you’re in an apartment block or living in the suburbs we are becoming more disengaged with those people around us and moving our attention to consuming digital media or interacting with online communities.

According to mental health Council of Australia getting to know your neighbors and establishing a sense of community have a very positive effect. Lacking a sense of community not only leads to sadness but has negative effects on the body’s immune system.

With time becoming a precious commodity and the stresses of everyday life increasing the chances of experiencing some form of mental health disorder.

So what can you do to reduce your urban stress?
Allow yourself an hour or two a day whereby you disconnect from the phone or internet and engage in some other form of activity.

Try:
1. Reading a book
2. Join the local sporting club all activity group
3. Go dancing
4. Check out an art gallery
5. Create new friendships
6. Get to know the neighbors
7. Play some music
8. Go for a walk around the block
9. Try yoga or some other form of meditative class
10 Once a day to do a random act of kindness, even try smiling at those people around you. It may seem like a crazy thing to do but you will feel a glowing warm fuzzy feeling afterwards.

Just remember even though we may feel pressured to perform all these tasks in a day, if we don’t the world still continues and life goes on.

An interesting story about the what someone would say about you at your funeral.

A friend attended her mothers funeral over the weekend, 500 people attended from the local town and interstate, only 5 years earlier her father passed away with 700 people attending.

Both parents were very active with there local schools, long after the kids had left, the local choir, fund raising drives and community projects, they were both very respected and valued.

As she started talking to an older gentleman about the eulogy and what a wonderful life that her mother had they got chatting about what they did for work.

The older gentleman, lets call him Jack, he said that he had a massive career change 20 years earlier following an earlier conversation he had regarding what would be said at his funeral. Jack had a extremely senior position with Microsoft that was extremely demanding but paid accordingly.

Well Jack commented that his eulogy would make reference to what a wonderful project manager he was, that he delivered the projects on time and on budget, that he was committed to the company and was devoted employee.

From that moment Jack decided to make a change to his life, he immediately resigned finally acknowledging that work only represented part of his life, that it also included his wonderful family, loving wife, fantastic children and an interest in golf and always wonderful things that will push aside to accommodate his 10 to 15 hour days.

Within a short period Jack found employment with a company that acknowledged that work only represented part of a person’s life, that the company would invest time and resources into helping develop the employees personal lifestyle. Ultimately an employee having a poor personal life would adversely effect their performance and happiness in the work environment so the work/life balance was paramount.

Every employee from the CEO down to the receptionist worked a standard 9 to 5 day, if there was a requirement to work past 5 PM, then it was concluded that one of the following had happened;

1.The employee was not working efficiently and therefore needed additional hours complete the required work
2.That the employee was under resourced to complete the job, that the person should have enlisted the help of more people to ensure that the job will be completed within the assigned time parameters.
3.That the job assigned employee was not appropriate based on his level of expertise or skill set.

This was the watershed moment that changed Jack’s life forever.
Quite often we are caught up in life, through achievement, or upgrading/updating our stuff, bigger house, a new car, the latest and greatest home entertainment system, the newest phone etc.
We just sometimes need the catalyst to start the ball rolling.

Ultimately does all of this stuff or those achievements bring you happiness in life, or is it more about the people around you, the relationships that you have and what you give out to those around you in your local community.

What will they say at your funeral?

When self-belief is combined with positive thinking anything is possible, especially when it comes to change your life. After losing his job, Bruce’s belief in himself, and what can be achieved if you set your mind to it, had awesome results.

A common occurrence within the Australian manufacturing sector also hit the compressor manufacturing company where Bruce worked – 40% of the workforce, including Bruce, were made redundant. With Bruce in his early 50s, the prospect of gaining employment was challenging and could’ve represented a very low point in his life.

But, for Bruce and his wife Lindy this was a watershed moment, and they were encouraged to pursue their own business, something that may not have done otherwise.

They sold their home in a Melbourne bayside suburb and with Bruce’s severance pay, purchased a beautiful B&B with restaurant called “The Shed Cafe” in the foothills of the Strathbogie Ranges in Victoria.

Well, for Lindy and Bruce the fact that they had zero experience in hospitality was no obstacle. They believed they could make it happen and learn the skills necessary to running a successful business, in Bruce’s words “we would rise to the challenge”. Lindy also knew she was a great cook and could adapt to managing 45 people, especially after her experiences running a busy medical centre.

Successful it is, within six months from initial purchase, bookings over winter proved to be very strong and restaurant patronage regularly met the 45 person capacity. They recently had a couple celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary.

The great thing about this positive change for Bruce and Lindy is that their work/life balance is now in check. If they want to take some time out to relax during the day they can, they recognise it’s all about getting balance in your life, rather than go, go, going all the time.

Often we talk about making changes in our lives, whether it be setting goals for weight loss, trying to get a better work/life balance, spending more time with the family or reaching big, hairy, audacious goals such as selling the family home and buying a business. Bruce and Lindy prove it’s possible.

Ultimately, you have to believe in yourself and think positively about achieving your goals.