Ways to Actually Leave Work at the Office

441

How many times have you been at home about to have dinner and you receive an ‘urgent’ text regarding a work update which pulls you away from the dining table? When you go out with friends your friend having to respond to an ‘urgent work’ call and you all having to excuse him can be so irritating, right?

To leave work at the office and not bring it into our personal time is almost tough for everybody. There is not a perfect way that can change this, but here are a few ideas that can help you to at least try.

Reminder to leave work every day

It is quite natural for us to get caught up with work and completely forget that we need to leave. Or perhaps you convince yourself that it is okay to stay back for just 30mins, which can then go up to an hour. But by the time you prepare to leave, you experience total burnout and cannot think about anything else.

So for self-help, set up a calendar reminder that will force you to leave work. It may be difficult initially but can give you a good start to manage your time to leave the office when your head is still less screwed and you can think of other things.

Remove your work email off your smartphone

Understand it clearly it is your personal phone and time apart from office is off work hours and your personal time. Un-sync your work email account. It might feel bold and uneasy at first. But it is the easiest way to control you to not think about work.

If this is not an option for you, perhaps you can try turning the notifications off. Or inform your team members to email you on your personal email id if anything’s urgent.

Write down things-to-do for the next morning

There are many times we feel stressed about leaving work when we have almost too much work going on. And it seems to us that it is endless and more and more work gushes in. And this is why we tend to check on our phone at home and stress about the next day the entire night.

If you feel that there are many things that you need to cover, at the end of every work day write down a short list of things to do the next morning. Jotting down will make you feel less scared of missing any work, out the next day. At the same time, to know the things to be managed as soon as you head in the coming morning will make you feel like you are at a good place to leave the office.