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Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#281
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that you strive as hard as possible to minmax and break the game when you're playing an RPG - that's part of the joy of playing a game. Sure you need some STR but if you're playing a mage, keep maxing out that Mana pool at the expense of everything else!

The reason minmaxing works in RPGs is because of the limitations of the simulation, which real-life doesn't have. A mage with 1 STR and 18 INT may work when trying to beat a game, but in real life he or she would live a miserable existence: https://www.dmingwithcharisma.com/2011/10/dd-stats-in-simple... (Good dungeon masters keep the above rubric in mind when running their games, btw, so as to discourage "gaming" the…

That mindset is fairly exclusive to DnD which is centered around 10, scaling to 20, and mostly not making much sense because they're thematically exponential gains but practically and mechanically linear (heck, there is no difference between any even number, and that number plus 1, in terms of rolling). In most game contexts, min maxing simply means dumping all your gains into one thing over time, with the "min" being things that just stay at the point where they began. Min maxing on that end makes plenty of sense, especially given people don't really have much agency in their irl "build". Being really good at one thing is really good as Hawking may demonstrate.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#282
I've never been able to switch off irrespective of whether I worked as an employee in an office somewhere or for myself at home. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs should explain why some people cant switch off, but fortunately as you get older your body fails you so exhaustion or failing health will literally switch you off.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#283
post #269

This trick might sound strange, but it worked well for me: Just dress the same in the morning as you would if you would go into the office, and at the end of the day, take off the work clothes and dress as you would normally at home. Some makes this even further and go out for a walk around the block so they "arrive at the office" and walk again at the end of the day to "walk home". Really sounds strange and funny, b…

>Just dress the same in the morning as you would if you would go into the office, and at the end of the day, take off the work clothes and dress as you would normally at home Tech bro problems: These are the exact same things for me

I've used a work hat and/or work shoes as a reminder to myself and my roommates that I'm working. Not like a hard hat, just things I wouldn't normally wear, that I wear "at" work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#284
post #143

This trick might sound strange, but it worked well for me: Just dress the same in the morning as you would if you would go into the office, and at the end of the day, take off the work clothes and dress as you would normally at home. Some makes this even further and go out for a walk around the block so they "arrive at the office" and walk again at the end of the day to "walk home". Really sounds strange and funny, b…

It's not that strange. These are the kind of tricks I learned from NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and helps orient the psychology. It is certainly why I make my daughter dress for school and change out of it after the school day is done, even if it is online school.

I studied NLP recreationally back around my last year of college in maybe 1999? as part of http://www.pickupguide.com . That site along with the show Mad Men probably taught me more about relationships and the business world than I ever learned in school. Thankfully I was able to forget it and move on sometime in the mid 2000s haha.

Anyway, something related that has helped me immensely is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I had the worst burnout of my life starting a year before COVID-19 hit, due to some struggles with work and sleep apnea leading to digestive issues (leaky gut to IBS/IBD) I didn't know about. I woke up more tired than I had ever been, every single day, and my whole body hurt like I was hungover and getting arthritis, even though I was going to the gym.

Anyway, I got an appliance to fix my bite, isolated the problems with my diet to an inability to digest legumes and nightshades (see Dr. Gundry for more info), but even after doing everything right, I was still burned out. I finally isolated that to untreated ADHD symptoms that snowballed into severely negative self-talk.

At the time, I could barely get out of bed and brush my teeth in the morning. It was kind of like I had a stroke, and lost the pathways responsible for problem solving. I went through the motions of the chores I had to do each day, and switched from criticizing myself to repeating the mantra "I'm excited", since anxiety and excitement are experienced identically by the body. Any time I had a negative thought, I noted it like with meditation and set it aside, or actively reworked it into a positive spin on the situation, even if it was in terms of a positive outcome for someone else, or progress towards a long term goal of mine. Sort of a self-administered form of CBT.

I was able to learn new habits every 2 weeks or so, and finally recruited the rest of my brain to take over for the parts that had quit working. I started on the road to recovery about 6 months after the fallout with my work, and was effectively cured over the next 2-3 months.

The other main tool that finally got me out of the hole was to separate my plans from their execution by creating temporary todo lists. It turns out that I also had executive dysfunction from trying to hold huge problem spaces in my head for too long. It was like I ran out of room in my brain's hard drive and it began thrashing.

Now that I am no longer burned out or depressed, I've also noticed that the dormant problem-solving pathways have reawakened. So luckily I don't have to relearn the technical skills from before. I've been doing handyman work and spend a lot of time daydreaming about what I'd like to accomplish on the computer, so when I sit down to it, it's easier to overcome starting friction. I'm focusing on having no lost days, and treating every checked off item on my todo list as a victory, rather than criticizing myself for lack of productivity.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#285
Environment pays a big role. I have a separate room just for work. Some of my friends work in the kitchen. Maybe you can try with changing your background view or move some objects around when there's a work time. Move a big plant into your vieport when you are working and move it to a different place when you are supposed to end your work day.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#286
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that you strive as hard as possible to minmax and break the game when you're playing an RPG - that's part of the joy of playing a game. Sure you need some STR but if you're playing a mage, keep maxing out that Mana pool at the expense of everything else!

The reason minmaxing works in RPGs is because of the limitations of the simulation, which real-life doesn't have. A mage with 1 STR and 18 INT may work when trying to beat a game, but in real life he or she would live a miserable existence: https://www.dmingwithcharisma.com/2011/10/dd-stats-in-simple... (Good dungeon masters keep the above rubric in mind when running their games, btw, so as to discourage "gaming" the…

But a good party is often one with specialized characters, so each can shine.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#287
If you have the freedom, since work is leaking into your fun time, try to allow fun to leak into your work time more. It's not as important to keep your life separated into little boxes as it is making sure your health isn't neglected.

I work from home, and while my home houses my whole family of 6, I have the same issues of separating work from home, especially at night. I just tend to show up late the next morning if I spend a few hours the night prior getting ahead, for example.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#288
post #192

I watched a YouTube video and this person explained a really neat concept. Your life is like a game. In this game, you have different stats and you must increase each stat. For example, in a typical game you may have: - Health - Attack Level - Money - Magic Level In games, you try to increase each of these stats to create the best and strongest character. Life is very similar, but the stats are: - Work - Social Life…

The RPG metaphor is beautiful and fertile and has already helped me to give a different perspective over my life. You soon realize also that _you_ are the programmer of the game: within some constraints, lot of rules can change and make life more fun.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#289

If you have the freedom, since work is leaking into your fun time, try to allow fun to leak into your work time more. It's not as important to keep your life separated into little boxes as it is making sure your health isn't neglected. I work from home, and while my home houses my whole family of 6, I have the same issues of separating work from home, especially at night. I just tend to show up late the next morning…

I suggest keeping fun out of work, if you can. It could cause you to suck at work. It could be he has to work so much because he does more than work, at work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#290
Divide your digital space as much as possible. I have work Slack on my mobile device, but not on my personal laptop, for example. I also use different email clients for work email and personal email, so that when I check personal email I'm not tempted to handle a work thing.
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