Unless
you’re a robot, it’s all but impossible to avoid having work
stress(don’t worry, robots, your time will come!). But it’s not
impossible to avoid taking those feelings home with you at the end of
the day. True leisure time, in which anxiety and frustration over work
can be set aside until you’re next at the office, is essential to
staying mentally in check. Here are five ways to keep work stress, rage,
and anxiety where they belong.
Walk home.
The
last thing that sounds appealing after a hard day of work is a brisk
walk. But there’s something really restorative about giving your brain
time to decompress from the day while also burning off excess energy
with some physical activity. If you drive to work, try parking a five or
ten minute walk from your office, and using that time to clear your
head; bus commuters, walk to the next stop beyond yours (or get off one
stop early on the way home).
Make today’s work stress your Future Self’s problem.
The
emotion I’m most likely to carry away from work with me is anxiety; I
tend to fret about the next day’s work before I’m even sitting down to
start in on it. “Don’t worry!” has never been particularly helpful
advice for me, but what’s worked is saying to myself, “I know you’re
worried about that call tomorrow, but that’s Future Lauren’s problem.”
It’s less the elimination of worry and more the placing that worry in
someone else’s capable hands for awhile.
Buddy up.
If you
live with a partner or a roommate, don’t make them the designated person
to whom you complain about your job or process frustrating work
situations. Choose a different friend or family member to vent to (and
make sure they don’t mind if you do). That way, you won’t be constantly
tempted to dive into dissecting work stresses because your processing
partner is available to you at all times at home. This reduces your
roommate or partner’s stress levels, too!
Advocate for balance.
If
you have a job that doesn’t require you to be online or available by
phone after hours, great! Savor it, and don’t squander it by choosing to
read email or make calls when it’s not required of you. (The old “put
your phone in a basket as soon as you get home” trick helps here.) If
you don’t have this luxury, start conversations in your workplace about
how to set limits that work for you, your teammates, and your bosses.
Chances are no one wants to be responding to work email at 10PM, and
being the first one to (diplomatically) say so will help you and your
colleagues.
Make plans.
One of the best ways to mitigate
workplace stress during the day and keep from bringing it home with you
is to have something to look forward to at the end of the day. That
doesn’t mean you have to go out every night after work, but give
yourself something that will fall something along the scale of diverting
to fun at the end of every day. Maybe it’s playing with your kid, maybe
it’s reading a book, maybe it’s grabbing a drink. But having a firm,
concrete plan in mind will both lift your spirits and draw a clean
boundary between work time and your time.
About the Author
Lauren
Hoffman writes about television, Joe Biden, and her feelings. She is a
regular contributor to Cosmopolitan.com and Vulture. She lives in
Seattle, Washington, and has no cats.
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