One of the surest ways to feeling stressed out is the sense that the walls are caving in on you. Rather than being in control of your life, your life is controlling you. You feel like a prisoner with no way out in sight. Those who report feeling this way tend to have too much on their plate. A job that requires ridiculous hours. A spouse and kids. Community service activities. A rigorous exercise routine. And so forth. While packing as much as we can into our schedule certainly prevents life from getting boring, we need to leave ourselves a bit of breathing room. Studies show that stress leads to negative health outcomes like headaches and heart disease. What's more, it may lead to coping mechanisms that can also be disadvantageous to one's health, like overeating, smoking, drinking, or taking illegal drugs. Once you feel as though there's not enough time in the day to do a single thing you enjoy doing for leisure -- read a book, watch a show, listen to music -- it ...

Full-time professionals in the U.S. work at least 40 hours a day, five days a week. A five-day work week (Monday-Friday) consists of 120 hours, meaning that we spend at least 33% of our time in the office. To put it another way, on average, we work 22 out of 30 days each month. And that doesn't even include the time we spend driving to and from work. Needless to say, when you consider how many of our waking hours are spent at work compared to the time we have off on the weekends, it's easy to see that we give away a hefty chunk of our lives to our employers. Save for the few vacations, if any, we take each year, weekends are usually our only time to: Relax Get more sleep Run errands we don't have time to do in the week Enjoy dining and entertainment with our partners, friends or families Do groceries Pay bills Mow the lawn and handle other home maintenance And more Let's face it: We don't have time to do all of the above every weekend. Just like wit...

When you're looking for the right job, you have to take a myriad of factors into account: Do the hours suit you? Is overtime expected? Is the culture to your liking? Does your personality fit the culture and demands of the job? Are you okay with the distance to and from work? Are the salary and benefits sufficient? What is the room for growth like? Do you feel you'd get along well with your supervisor? Does the job require travel? If so, would you be okay with that? Unfortunately, the answers to most of these questions will likely remain a mystery until you've been working there for a while. It's impossible to decipher what the culture will be like when you've only sat for one or two interviews. That's why I recommend that people do their research beforehand. Visit sites like glassdoor.com for any reviews that current or former employees may have written about the company. Perhaps you notice that a friend of a friend on Linkedin works at the com...