Working hard, too hard?

I recently received an email from a friend who was on vacation. She had referred me to another friend of hers who needed her book formatted, so she wrote to me to tell me this. While on vacation. I didn’t think anything of it. I do the same thing. A day doesn’t go by without me checking my email and responding to at least those messages that need an immediate response, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. We all do this, right?

Well, in today’s ultra-connected world, yeah, we do. But should we?

This idea was brought home to me yesterday when I was talking at the Frederick Book Festival on a panel about the pros and cons of self-publishing.

One of the things I asked the panel (I was the moderator as well as a participant) was to name the worst thing about self-publishing. Some people said it was the fact that you have to do everything yourself – see to the editing, cover art, formatting, as well as all the marketing after the book is published. Some said it was that all of these things are expensive and you’re taking a risk laying out money for something you don’t know will sell. You don’t know whether you’ll earn that money back or not.

I made the point (as did Jeanne Adams, who was also on the panel) that when you’re a self-publisher you are your own boss. That’s not easy. Jeanne talked about her difficulty with deadlines — they’re so much easier to meet when they’re being imposed by someone else, rather than yourself.  For me, I’m my own worst boss because I rarely let myself slack and even more rarely do I give myself time off, even when I’m on vacation. And clearly, as evidenced from this email I got from my friend, I’m not the only one.

What sort of example are we setting for our kids? Is this a good thing that we do this — that we don’t or can’t let go of our work? Do you do this too? How do you feel about it?