Working the typical seven-hour day is recommended to minimise the risk of developing heart-related illnesses.

Individuals setting up a recruitment agency may want to keep an eye on the number of hours they work in order to keep themselves healthy.

According to research published online in the European Heart Journal, people who regularly put in overtime and work ten or 11-hour days increase their heart disease risk by nearly two-thirds.

The long-running study of more than 10,000 British civil servants compared people who did not work overtime and those who worked three or more hours longer than the typical seven-hour day. The latter had a 60 per cent higher risk of heart-related problems, such as death due to heart disease, non-fatal heart attacks and angina.

Although this may be of concern to recruiters who are running their own businesses due to the amount of hours they need to put it, getting into efficient habits can help them eliminate the need for overtime work.

Writing recently on peer-to-peer site LinkedIn, recruitment industry insider Piers Rowan urged recruiters to adopt an OHIO modus operandi, which means Only Handle It Once, to ensure time is utilised effectively.