Leaving Work at Work: How to Stop Taking Your Work Stress Home

Working at Home / Home Office

Recent studies suggest that we’re much more stressed out than we used to be. In fact, 1 in 4 US workers surveyed in these studies said that their stress-levels rated 4 out of 5 and over 60% said that they felt stressed out at least three days a week. In short, these studies tell us that most of us feel stressed out, most of the time. When we’re stressed out, we often take our work worries home. While we need to think and process our feelings, taking work home like this means that we never get a break. Our brains are always switched on and in work mode. We don’t get a rest; we struggle to sleep, we don’t give our families and friends the attention that they deserve, we don’t look after ourselves, and we don’t have any fun. Over time, this can lead to serious physical and mental health issues and a general loss of enjoyment from our lives.

Even those of us that don’t suffer from chronic work stress are taking work home. We check our emails; we look at the office social media feeds, we plan meetings or even go on conference calls. All when we are at home, and not being paid to work. This can be even worse if you run your own small business with a fifth of small business owners failing to take more than a week off in the last three years and more than 40% regularly work a six or seven-day week.

Even if you love your job, working too much, taking stress home and not giving yourself a break can have terrible consequences. Here are some tips to help you leave work at work.

Simplify Things

We often take our work home because we don’t feel like we’ve got any choice. We’ve got so much to do; this is the only way to keep on top of it. Well, it doesn’t have to be. Change your work systems, make them more efficient and simplify what you can. Use professional procurement software< to reduce administration and cut inefficient workflows, start delegating more and even outsource what you can when things are busy. Write Lists

To do lists are a fantastically simple way to keep on top of your work and get more done. Each morning, when you arrive at your desk, write a list of everything you need to do that day, in order. If something else comes up during the day, either squeeze it in or add it to tomorrow’s list. When your list is complete, you are done.

Embrace Your Commute

If you have a long and busy commute to and from work, it can make it much harder to switch off. If you’ve had a bad day, then have to spend 40 minutes sitting on a busy train, you’re just going to get more wound up. Try reading, listening to music or audiobooks, or simply meditating. Find ways to enjoy this time on your own. Then, when you get home, you’ve already left work behind.

View Posts

Providing a daily digital source for motivation and inspiration for the perfect work/life balance.

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.