You can’t have a shower every time you need to switch off
There is logic to this madness.
There is a meaning to that daft title and I’ll explain it at the end of this post.
In a recent mentoring session, I was asked to share my advice on switching off from work.
It’s a very real challenge, particularly now that 1 in 4 people are in some form of hybrid working situation.
If you had a career pre-Covid, you were used to five days a week – every week – in the office. You got on with it because it was the norm, and while it was made much more enjoyable and bearable if you worked with a good bunch of people (as I did), it’s easy to forget now that hybrid working is more normal.
You could also be like me and other self-employed people where you’re fully working from home, with the main challenge of trying to remember to leave your work behind without a physical change in location.
These scenarios bring their own challenges, particularly if you’re someone who struggles to switch off from work. I therefore thought it would be useful to share the advice I gave on that mentoring call with the hope it’s provides some guidance for others.
A quick side-note, these techniques won’t work all of the time. Sometimes a properly crap day will ruin anyone’s chance to switch off at home, but structure and repetition are often good antidotes.
Creating a specific WFH space
One of the underrated benefits of being in an office is the ability to literally separate home from work. The physical act of leaving the office and commuting does mostly allow you to slowly unwind by the time you arrive home.
This evaporates when actually working from home.
However, one technique is to create a specific space that’s just for WFH life. For some, this is a home office, study or spare bedroom. But if you don’t have the space, it could be a specific area of your house or even one particular chair at your kitchen table.
The latter might sound daft, but by associating that area with work, it means you don’t mentally connect the whole house as an extension of your office.
If you’re allowed to work from anywhere, you can follow the same routine in your favourite cafe, co-working space, library, and so on. Anywhere that you feel comfortable and motivated.
Sometimes it could just be a case of putting away all work materials – completely out of sight – when you’re not working. If you can’t see it, it’s one less reminder of work.
The work-association game
I am unable to work while listening to a podcast or watching TV. I’ll either completely focus on the media and ignore my work, or phase it out and crack on with whatever tasks are on my to-do list.
Both affect my concentration, so I just don’t do it.
However if it works for you then that’s cool – but don’t do it if you want to separate your enjoyment of that podcast (or TV programme, film or album) from your day-to-day. You will end up subconsciously associating it with work, even when you’re on non-work time.
Instead, you might listen or watch something only outside of work, or even choose not to do something when you’re working.
You can also explore a commitment device and see if that helps your process and focus.
Switch off non-urgent notifications
I’m a big believer in this one when you’re WFH, particularly if your notifications can be distracting or duplicated.
Starting with the latter first – you don’t need email and chat notifications pinging on your laptop at the same time as your phone.
If you can set a status so your team know you’re in focus mode then that’s a great example of clear communication. And helps you to be less distracted.
This is one of the main reasons why I mute many group chats on Whatsapp#!
What about the shower?
When COVID hit, everyone who’d never worked from home was suddenly thrust into the challenge of trying to do so, while also maintaining their (heavily restricted) personal lives.
I used to work from a spare bedroom and, before going downstairs to be a parent and husband, I would jump in the shower to try and switch off. This was my own physical barrier between work and home, even though it was in the same space.
Since I eventually got used to hybrid working, and now being fully remote, it’s not something I need to do anymore.
Someone once called it ‘commuting in the shower’ which sounds like a bizarre innuendo…
That now means it time to stop writing and end this post!