Picture the scene. You’re strolling down a sandy beach, walking hand in hand with someone hand-holding worthy. Gentle waves are rolling in and out of the shore, the water is nibbling at your toes. The sunset is glorious and the warmth peaceful. Then you walk headlong into something sharp. It’s a Teams Chat. With a start you realise you’ve forgotten to add a crucial timeline to a project that will blow everything out of the (no longer calm) water.
And that’s it. Beach dream over, the clock says 3am, you’re wide awake and reaching for your laptop.
Sound familiar?
One of the downsides to being dedicated to your job and motivated by what you do is that it can be hard to let go and return to life with a clear head. The way we work now – from a range of locations, flexibly and with 24/7 communication is brilliant in so many ways – a game changer – but it does have its down sides. And if we’re not careful we create a situation where we’re never not at work.
Everybody has their own way of finding balance between work and the rest of life, so if you’re managing it well, read no further. If, however, you struggle sometimes as most of us do, here are some tips to help you detach from work when your day is done.
- Decide in the morning, an end point to your day and the work you need to do. Few jobs are so neat that you can finish every task daily, so agree with yourself where you want to have got to by the end of that day and leave it there. Tie things up to the point that you won’t fret about what is left to do.
- If you’re out and about, use your journey home to make the mental transition. This is one of the advantages of a commute. It gives you a chance to detach from one part of your life and rejoin another. So, if you have a commute, make the most of it and don’t just work or you haven’t detached at all. Read (not a job-related book!), watch or listen to something, play a game, stare out the window, look at fellow commuters and wonder about their lives – and allow your mind to end that part of the day. And if you do work locally or from home, go for a walk in the park, meet friends for a drink – do something that draws a line under the working day and propels you into the rest of your life. “Faking your commute” has been much talked about since we work more flexibly and with good reason. We all need that transition period and it needn’t be train/bus/car – it could simply be doing something in your office space that isn’t work related to help you make the switch.
- Consider switching off your work notifications. This won’t be right for everyone and if you’re on call you may need to stay in touch. If you’re not, however, and you know that emails coming in will make you agitated or distracted when you don’t want to be, consider closing down those communications until the next day.
- Be a follower of that time honoured stress management technique entitled “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. If work is your sole focus it’s hard to switch off when you want to. It’s easier if you have other places to be when the time comes. So, develop interests, value your social life, volunteer, do sport – or whatever interests you outside work. If nothing else, they will give you something to think about when you need a break from work thoughts.
- Review your before-bed activities. Some people can eat late, scroll their News apps, drink copious amounts of caffeine and check emails and they still sleep like babies. Many of us can’t. Look for a night time wind down routine that works for you. Children have them, adults need them too. It doesn’t have to be bath/book/bed – just something that will give you the best chance at encouraging the beach dream and not the project planning nightmare.