Beyoncé's days of working herself to the bone are long gone, she says.

The 43-year-old singer, whose full name is Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, once put her career before anything else, she told GQ last week. For years, she subjected herself to the pop-star blueprint, she said: red carpets, award ceremonies, charting singles, stadium tours, rinse and repeat.

The work-first lifestyle caught up to her, resulting in insomnia, physical exhaustion, and poor mental health, she said. These days, she's more intentional about work-life balance — and she's more successful because of it, she added.

"There was a time when I was pushing myself to meet unrealistic deadlines, while not taking the time to enjoy the benefits of why I was working so hard," said Beyoncé. "There aren't many of us from the late '90s who were taught to focus on mental health. Back then, I had little boundaries, and said yes to everything ... And now I work smarter."

Even when you're already an established force in your industry, it's hard to know when to set boundaries, move at your own pace or pursue a job you genuinely care about instead of one just for the money, Beyoncé said.

In her case, that meant spending five years creating a country-inspired album — "Cowboy Carter," which came out in March — and launching two business lines this year. One is Cécred, a hair-care brand she's said was inspired by her childhood helping out at her mother's hair salon. The other, SirDavis, is a Moët Hennessy whiskey label named after her Prohibition-era moonshiner great-grandfather Davis Hogue.

"Cowboy Carter" sold 407,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, according to Billboard. Cécred's moisture sealing lotion won one of Elle UK's 2024 Future of Beauty Awards, and SirDavis won two platinum titles at last year's SIP Awards before becoming available to the public.

"I don't waste my time on something unless I'm deeply passionate about it. If I don't wake up thinking about it and I'm not going to sleep dreaming about it, it's not for me," Beyoncé said, adding: "I build my work schedule around my family. I try to only tour when my kids are out of school ... So, when you don't see me on red carpets, and when I disappear until I have art to share, that's why."

Don't make a habit of overworking yourself

It's easy to forget about your mental and physical health when you're loaded with responsibility at work. Take it from billionaire Bill Gates, who never took time off while building Microsoft, and now regrets it.

"I didn't believe in vacations. I didn't believe in weekends. I didn't believe the people I worked with should either," Gates said during a commencement speech at Northern Arizona University last year.

Yasmene Mumby, a Harvard University-trained leadership advisor, says she once got so stressed at work, she began to lose her vision. Out of necessity, she started cutting back on professional responsibilities, avoiding urgent deadlines and speaking up when overwhelmed. The process forced her to figure out how to do her job more efficiently and intentionally, inadvertently turning her into a higher achiever, she told Make It last year.

You don't have to be the first person in the office and the last one out to be successful: The quality of your work is often more important than the number of hours you spend online, according to Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder.

"I think people are savvy these days enough to know that just because you sit in the office eight hours a day doesn't necessarily mean you're a productive employee," Haller told Make It last month.

Your workplace connections can matter too. "Establish relationships, find a mentor, get to know a team," said Haller. "Observe the successful people, see how they work and operate, and ask for advice."

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