The United States is the most overworked industrial country in the world. Overwork is a common culprit in limiting valuable family time, contributing to dysfunctional relationships, inducing stress-related health problems and resulting in unhealthy living patterns. “We are working ourselves to death and we are defining ourselves according to that frenzy,” says author David Wann in Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic.

Harvard sociologist Juliet Schor reports in her book, Take Back Your Time: Fighting Time Poverty and Overwork in America, that from 1973 to 2000 the average American worker put in five extra weeks a year, or 200 work hours over the annual standard. Her book has become the handbook og's healthy living movement called Take Back Your Time. Proponents focus on how too much work impairs every area of our lives.

“The solution is simple,” says John de Graff, coordinator of the Take Back Your Time initiative. “Cut back your work hours now and start enjoying a simpler life.” De Graff suggests that corporate America can play a major role in this. Rather than lay off thousands of workers, why not cut back the number of hours? This makes it possible for people to stay both healthier and employed.

“We have a sizeable number of people in this country that would be willing to trade pay for some time off,” says de Graff. “Those folks should be given that opportunity without losing their benefits.”

For more information, visit www.simpleliving.net/timeday