Do you ever feel like you’re not fully present in your free time because half of your brain is back at the office? Or do you often spend the weekend worrying about something your boss sent late Friday that you cannot even deal with until Monday?
Even when we try to practice good work-life balance, intrusive thoughts can make it difficult to enjoy our time outside of work. Our fears and ambitions constantly play on our minds. On top of this, there is the expectation, either imagined or real, that in our modern interconnected world we need to be contactable at all times.
Why it is bad to think about work all the time
These continuous invasions of your own time can have a serious negative impact on both your physical and mental health. One of the most well-known manifestations of this is burnout. Burnout is the colloquial name for the extreme sense of exhaustion, both mental and physical, caused by constantly high levels of stress. Ultimately, burnout helps no one as it makes you less effective at work and so overwhelmed it can even be a struggle to begin basic tasks.
Another classic sign of stress is insomnia. While everyone has the occasional night where their worries are racing through their mind at 3am, preventing them from getting back to sleep, it becomes a problem when it happens too often or you cannot get to sleep in the first place.
A lesser-known issue caused by chronic stress is a weakened immune system. You’ll start to notice now that nearly all of these things impact your performance at work. This means they are bad for your employer in the long run too. We will focus here on things you can do to switch off easily at home, but your boss has some responsibility too and you should make them aware when they are pushing you too hard.
Of course, it is a sad fact that the inability to stop stressing about work does not only affect you, but those you spend time with too. They may become frustrated or feel neglected.
Tips to stop stressing about work
It can seem difficult to just stop thinking about work. In fact, the harder you consciously try to do it the more you will probably end up thinking about it. You have to take an indirect approach, but there are actually a number of strategies which can help. These include:
Physical separation: If you go into the office or another type of workplace for your job, you’re in luck because this is already done for you. Physically leaving your work and going somewhere else plays a big role in shutting down your mind’s work mode and preparing you for your free time. If you are working from home, try and restrict yourself to working in a particular place that you can get up and leave once you are finished. Leave all your work materials there too. Try to avoid using it for anything other than work.
If this isn’t an option, you could try taking a short walk between finishing your workday and starting your evening or weekend. This imaginary commute can help you mentally separate your work and leisure time.
End-of-day routine: Just about everybody is now familiar with the power of morning routines to get you in an energised, productive mood. But routines can work the other way around too, and this is how you should spend the last 15 to 30 minutes of your day. The exact activity and order of things is up to you, but it should definitely include preparing a to-do list for the following day.
Something that is not recommended at this time is opening emails, especially if it is Friday afternoon. This can create an ‘open loop,’ a problem or task that you actually cannot do anything about until the next working day. You’ll spend time worrying about it without being any nearer to a solution.
Distract yourself: Do something you find fun. Listening to music, watching TV, engaging in a hobby, or reading; even just 15 or 30 minutes of these can take your mind off of work. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make them challenging either. If reading a fashion magazine engages you more than the classics, then for the purpose of taking your mind off work, that’s just fine.
Schedule worry time: Decide on a short time in your day when you will think about work concerns. Writing them down in a journal might also help get them out of your head and clarify them too. Once this period of time is over, find an engaging task to work on. It doesn’t have to be related to your worries. Not that you’ve given your worries some dedicated, structured thought, they’ll be less likely to return later in the day.
Get the basics right: It would be remiss not to mention that healthy habits like eating well, exercising, and socialising all help to reduce your stress in the long term too.
