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How to Leave Work at Work

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Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#31

Post by halfcat »

tayo42 wrote: post #24

The thing i struggle with isn't really working extra hours or getting off hour messages. I think those are obvious problems and easy to be aware of. My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up, in the shower, eating dinner, on the commute, falling asleep. One time i was on vacation on the other side of the world and out of nowhere i suddenly realized I knew how to handle some problem i was having at work.…

> My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up

I remember an interview with David Allen of GTD, and he was asked what he had planned for the afternoon, and he said, “I don’t know. I’ll find out then”. At the time, I hadn’t used GTD much, and I thought this was tongue in cheek. Years later I realized he was dead serious.

The big win of GTD (or similar) is not a Swiss Army knife of task management. The big win is returning mental bandwidth to you.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#32

Post by angrais »

halfcat wrote: post #31
tayo42 wrote: post #24

The thing i struggle with isn't really working extra hours or getting off hour messages. I think those are obvious problems and easy to be aware of. My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up, in the shower, eating dinner, on the commute, falling asleep. One time i was on vacation on the other side of the world and out of nowhere i suddenly realized I knew how to handle some problem i was having at work.…

> My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up I remember an interview with David Allen of GTD, and he was asked what he had planned for the afternoon, and he said, “I don’t know. I’ll find out then”. At the time, I hadn’t used GTD much, and I thought this was tongue in cheek. Years later I realized he was dead serious. The big win of GTD (or similar) is not a Swiss Army knife of task management. The big w…

What does GTD mean?

Edit: Getting Things Done (GTD) for anyone unaware like me.

Pro writing tip: first write out the words of an acronym before defining it like I did above or the reader will be confused.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#33

Post by userbinator »

tayo42 wrote: post #24

The thing i struggle with isn't really working extra hours or getting off hour messages. I think those are obvious problems and easy to be aware of. My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up, in the shower, eating dinner, on the commute, falling asleep. One time i was on vacation on the other side of the world and out of nowhere i suddenly realized I knew how to handle some problem i was having at work.…

I wouldn't really call that a problem, much like "non-work thoughts" will occur while you're "at work" too.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#34

Post by adamjb »

klenwell wrote: post #16
mjlee wrote: post #9

Personally, the biggest win was to learn how to leave tasks unfinished. This pays off in two ways - firstly I finish work when I planned to instead of "just five more minutes", which inevitably spins off into a series of open ended diversions. Secondly, it means I can start the next day with something I can sink in to, avoiding the feeling of procrastination and guilt that comes along with that, ultimately resulting…

I was going to suggest a variation of this idea that I learned about here on Hacker News and have applied successfully since: Try to stop on a bug or error. Same reasoning you cited with a bonus: when you come back in the morning, you'll have an error message to help you quickly pick up where you left off.

Reminds me of the "meanwhile back at the ranch" school of screenwriting: switch to your B story when your A story is at its peak of interest, and switch to your A story when your B story is at its peak. That way when you do switch back you won't have to work (too hard) to keep the audience's interest.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#35

Post by CarbyAu »

Coming close to burnout, I realised the work game is bigger than me.

If I have so much work that I am drowning and people are looking for me to do more and more and more.....

that means my manager failed their Real Time Strategy Game and they need another worker at my level. Maybe that's because the next manager up failed their game, etc etc.

But it doesn't matter why.

I do 9-5. And I go home. That is the employment contract. That is what I do.

I try to make good on my 9-5 so my own self worth is fine. But I only do my job.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#36

Post by Frost1x »

CarbyAu wrote: post #35

Coming close to burnout, I realised the work game is bigger than me. If I have so much work that I am drowning and people are looking for me to do more and more and more..... that means my manager failed their Real Time Strategy Game and they need another worker at my level. Maybe that's because the next manager up failed their game, etc etc. But it doesn't matter why. I do 9-5. And I go home. That is the employment…

Many however don't do this and it often reflects badly on those who do try to work normal hours. They essentially set the bar higher and unless you're more efficient, you fall behind in performance assessments or output.

One environment I interact with are all hypercompetitive and I probably look like an idiot to some of leadership because I refuse to work 60 hour work weeks like some of them grind away. If they decide to reduce or remove my services, life goes on, but we're somehow rolling back on labor's mentality about work life balance and being eaten alive by structures in place designed to force us to compete for the lowest rates (by adjusting either work or time in some way, shape, or form).

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#37

Post by Frost1x »

userbinator wrote: post #33
tayo42 wrote: post #24

The thing i struggle with isn't really working extra hours or getting off hour messages. I think those are obvious problems and easy to be aware of. My biggest problem is just having work thoughts come up, in the shower, eating dinner, on the commute, falling asleep. One time i was on vacation on the other side of the world and out of nowhere i suddenly realized I knew how to handle some problem i was having at work.…

I wouldn't really call that a problem, much like "non-work thoughts" will occur while you're "at work" too.

I'd say I have a lot more work thoughts invading my personal life than vice versa. When I'm at work I'm expected to pump things out and the cognative load leaves very little room for thoughts to creep in.

On the other hand when I'm relaxed and enjoying free thought, I sometimes can't help but use some of that freetime to think through work problems to reduce work stress. I suppose if my personal time was spent with high cognative load as well, it would be a fair trade off, but after working at high cognative function 40+ hours a week, my personal time tries to be as mentally relaxing as possible.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#38

Post by justatdotin »

I'm a long-term remote worker. At first it was challenging. After a year of trying to create boundaries, I gave up.

Twice I'd had a 'bad' friday, only to have solutions reveal themselves while I was gardening over the weekend. I realised it did me no harm that my mind strayed to work while gardening, and in fact I was glad of it. So I made a decision to abandon attempts at erecting artificial structure, and quickly realised that trying to impose separations had caused more stress than it resolved.

I found it liberating to stop trying to 'leave work at work', and to not be upset if my thoughts stray to work when I 'should' be off the clock. In return, I stopped trying to block out the rest of my life from my home office. I enjoy a busy life with various community responsibilities and being able to give some attention to these (and family) during 'work hours' is something I value highly. In return I'm happy to perform work activities outside office hours as it suits.

I understand why this won't work for everyone, but for me, trying to set boundaries - which many people had told me was the way to maintain balance - was counter-effective. If anyone is having trouble setting boundaries; consider not.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#39

Post by dbcurtis »

justatdotin wrote: post #38

I'm a long-term remote worker. At first it was challenging. After a year of trying to create boundaries, I gave up. Twice I'd had a 'bad' friday, only to have solutions reveal themselves while I was gardening over the weekend. I realised it did me no harm that my mind strayed to work while gardening, and in fact I was glad of it. So I made a decision to abandon attempts at erecting artificial structure, and quickly r…

Kind of an interesting take. Same for me, the solution to vexing problems often come in off-hours.

My solution for creating boundaries is not to banish wrong-think at wrong times, but to simply prioritize "my time" versus "company time". If I am on company time, that hobby idea gets jotted down for after-hours research. But after I am off the clock, my personal interests get my attention and work can wait, or gets just a quick notation so that I can refocus on my own priority.

Interestingly working full-time again after a stint of contracting has made this easier. When I was doing mostly remote contracting, it was harder to separate -- the urge to generate billable hours made it hard to enjoy my free time. Now that I have FTE -- my weekends are mine, damn it.

Re: How to Leave Work at Work

#40

Post by dvasdekis »

I'm a solo founder working from home, and even though I'm kicking goals with the startup, I'm really having struggles with separating work from the rest of my life within my headspace. For quite some time, I've been waking up at 3am with work thoughts perhaps twice a week, and will struggle to go back to sleep.

Does anyone have any advice, beyond what this article mentions?

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