Working is a huge part of adult life as it helps us to feed and shelter ourselves and maybe even make meaningful relationships with our colleagues. However, work can also be the cause of stress and destroy relationships with our family and friends.
Work concerns can really take over one’s life. You may have realized this the moment your son got angry at you for not listening while he’s telling you about his day because you are consumed by work even when you are at home.
You have to give time for rest and your meaningful relationships. This does not mean you have to resign or leave your job because there are tips on how to leave work at work. Here are some of them.
Establish Your “Off-Hours”
It is easier to know your off-hours if you are employed in a 9-to-5 job. However, you have to decide when you want to be on and off the clock if you are in a flexible working environment.
Also, it may be challenging to establish walls or boundaries between home and work if you are working from home. But you can start by strictly following your work schedule and knowing when to stop.
If your employer did not set an exact working time but expects you to report for a certain number of hours weekly, you have to establish your own parameters, so you can still fit those hours for your personal commitments.
Establishing your off-hours can also mean turning off your notifications or alarms so that you will not be tempted to answer an email or call while you are off from work.
Focus On The Required Workload
When you are passionate about what you do, you tend to overdo it. You do what is more than required and often take the extra mile to achieve goals concerning your job. This isn’t a bad thing.
However, it does become one if you try to solve every problem in your department to please others and cannot focus on what is required. You can always move on to do the extra tasks once you are done with what is expected of you.
Remember that you can always go back to it tomorrow when you return to the office, so you can stop worrying about the additional tasks for a moment, and focus on what is needed now. Get the required work done at work.
You can always step up your game and pour your heart out into anything worthwhile, but anything worthwhile can be put off for a while. If there is time, you can always do extra work and help your workmates and department achieve goals.
Set Boundaries With People At Your Work
As stated above, it’s easy to set a boundary when you have a 9-to-5 job, you can just easily tell your colleagues that you are offline after work, and they would understand. However, boundaries can be easier to break in other situations.
Be direct in telling your colleagues about your offline hours, regardless of whether you are in the office or working from home. Knowing your availability will create boundaries so no one is disappointed and no unwanted interruptions.
You can also establish that divide between work and home by setting some guidelines on how people can reach you for a specific time. For example, texting or calling you means their concern is urgent, so you have to check and attend to it immediately.
But in some situations, you may ask them to use email instead for matters that can be dealt with a little later. This way, you can determine when to respond to notifications or if it’s important to open it the moment you received one.
Conclusion
Taking up the above ideas doesn't mean work will never cross your mind after working hours, but they'll certainly help. Working hard is a good virtue to attain success, but taking the time to focus on matters outside work is just as important.
