Hugh’s Blog

When you Leave Work – Let it Go

While you may keep reasonable hours at work, how many hours is your brain still at work? Our brain loves to ruminate and constantly drift off to what interests us – like work. How often do you find yourself listening to your spouse or partner or children and then realize you were thinking about work?
 
When we create a definite separation between work and home we reduce the “Monkey Mind” and the related stress that comes from worrying about something you can’t change anyway. Here are some more tips on this…

• Before you leave work do a “brain dump”. Make a list of what priorities you need to address immediately upon arrival in the morning.  Scan your weekly goals for progress or changing priorities.  Note any current thoughts or ideas that you don’t want to lose. Then forget them!
• Choose a landmark that you pass on the way home (a bridge, sign, church, etc.) to be your transition place.  When you pass it take a few, deep cleansing breaths and say to yourself “End of work time, start of home time”.
• When you catch yourself after work starting to think about work again, stop, write down whatever it is you need to remember, and remind yourself that you will be better able to deal with work if you leave it for a while.
• Ask yourself: “How often do I start thinking about work when I am at home?” “Am I needlessly worrying about work while at home?” Then start to change your patterns.
• Have fun with your habits! See if you can turn work off, as planned, and not revisit work in your head for an entire evening!

Creating a separation between work and home-life is critical for our health and well being. We need time to recharge and probably our family and friends would like to have our full attention when we are with them.