How to move away from Work related thoughts to keep work life balance

Hey there!

In this post, I will describe how to move away from work related thought during your free time (I mean the time when you are off from the work). I really thought that this post is also required to me as well because recently, I am living alone for couple of months and realized that I was in trouble to getting rid of all thoughts related to work.

Thinking about the work and related stuff is somehow good thing because it will keep hanging around your brain and sometimes giving you inspired idea to trouble shoot your dead-end situation. For example, I designed some simple and innovative approach to tackle down one of my problem to resolve that I had been considering couple of weeks. So, always thinking something in your work like designing algorithm or approach to resolve obstacles in your task is somewhat helpful. However, the problem is that if this limbo state keeps going month over month, it will devour your entire life and make you slave of the work which is totally what we want to be.

Then, what we need to focus on would be not having posture to think less about the work, but avoiding to think after off your work. This is important because if you are failed to move away from work related thought in your rest of day, your will face another day with full of your work which is not great. Yeah, maybe couple of days are good to you because you can continuously focus on your work which requires somewhat deep consideration. But, such case will not last forever. In my personal experience, it will torture my brain twice and the damage or fatigue of my brain is getting double. This will lead burn out easily.

Now, what? You need to make as many distractions as possible in your life, so that your brain cannot recall work related stuffs anytime between your new working hour and rest of time. Heres are some exercises that I have and things I usually discussed with my manager whenever I have this issue.

1. Work out

The most healthy way to get rid of what related thinking from your free time is doing work out. You can start from simple walking outside. Just go out and look around the view or buildings surrounding you. It will refresh you from your work. Also, usually most people are sitting over 8 hours every day and this will give pressure your back as well. Very helpful approach to relax your back is just walking in right posture.

Or, you can try out to getting sweat in the gym. Lifting is also a way to put your body more healthy shape and stretch your brain to care about your body only. Furthermore, you will not only get the fresh brain washing tedious work thought, but also having great body.

2. Spend time with family

Family is always a good source of giving energy and distracting yourself from the work. Most of your family member is different from your background. In my case, my wife was majored Psychology and I was majored Computer Science. Since two fields are totally different, our conversation topic is also different. From having time with my wife, I can absolutely forget about the work and solely enjoy your life.

I know some of you live alone and nothing much you can do to connect with your family members. You know, we are now living in digital generation! We can use video call to connect with family anytime anywhere. If you simply don’t want to talk with your family ? It is a little bit sad, but that is okay. You can also hang out with your friends. Even though they are co-workers, it is fine. Meeting outside of work is also another opportunity to know each other and distracting each one from work and dive deep on individual person. Just keep it mind that not talking too much about your work. It would be another working session to you and your co worker as well LOL.

3. Meditation

This method is one of the approach my manager suggested, but I have not tried yet. Meditation is one way to think only yourself. Having small break for your mentality must be a great timing to take a pause from whatever you bothered and clear your brain and re-arm to fight difficult problems in your work. Always remember that one time meditation helps but not a lot. You need to make this routine, so that you can automate yourself to sweep your thoughts and put fresh ideas into your brain!

4. Learn or try something new

I recently started to learn French. This is one of the material the Canada government provides after I got PR in Canada. I was thinking this might be nice to leverage this chance to have something new can have a seat in my mind. Away from what I am used to do, learning new thing is shocking my brain and hopefully interested and inspired my mentality to ignore any unhelpful work related stuffs from my daily life.

Take away

Always keep it mind that nobody can live with the head which is full of one single stream of thought. You need balance between your work and your life. Most people can manage that easily by having simple discipline. I think you have your own way to move away from your work. Please share your methods in comments! Thanks