Work Is Great, But Stop Thinking About It — Here’s an [Infographic] to Help

Working from home definitely has its perks, but it also has its downsides.

However, the hardest thing about working from home is preventing myself from becoming a workaholic.

This is not only true for those who work from home but for anyone that has a job that they love and get a lot of joy out of.

Although we may really like our jobs, we all need time where we do not think, talk, or even dream about work —but how? Sometimes it just creeps in even when we’re trying to make sure it doesn’t.

The infographic below created by Cashnet, gives us helpful tips and tricks to leave work behind and enjoy time to the fullest when we are not at work.

If you are thinking about work when you really don’t want to considering doing one of these things:

Write down what is bothering you.

This is a great way to get on paper what you are thinking about, maybe it is that great idea you thought of for your meeting tomorrow or the memory of a rough conversation you had that day.

Get it on paper and put it away. This will give your brain room to start thinking about other things.

Use progressive muscle relaxation.

It may be hard to sit down and try to relax after work — after all you did just accomplish a lot! — but by closing your eyes, taking in a few deep breaths, and shrugging your shoulders, you will feel ready to conquer the rest of the day.

Try saying “STOP!” out loud.

Now this one may seem pretty amusing, but by voicing the word stop, you are focusing on something that is not work.

You could even have fun with this in a train station or on your commute home of how loud you can say stop before some asks you “are you okay?”

Just tell them you are trying to forget about work. They will understand.

Write a daily exit list

If I did not have a list of tasks for every day, I would be lost and probably would not have a job to even think about, but if you're not the person to do that, it’s a good place to start.

At 3 P.M. every day, make a list of items you have to get done before you can leave work. Once that list is done, you have made the most out of your day and let tomorrow be tomorrow.

Close all your open browser tabs.

This one can be hard.

I know it is nice to come back into the office the next day and pick up right where you left off, but by doing closing all your tabs, you are officially bringing today's work to an end.

Tomorrow will be a new day with new tabs.

If you are still not a fan of that, Google has a great tool to close all of your tabs and you can restart tomorrow.

Design your commute.

Make your commute something that you look forward, not something where you’re purely thinking about the day ahead or the day that just happened.

Listen to a great podcast, your favorite music, read a book, or play a game.

After all, you just worked a full day or are about to; this is a great time to decompress and get ready to spend time with yourself.

For those that do not have a daily commute, like myself, I like to take the dogs for a walk.

This provides such a great way to literally walk away from work and “move on” with my day.

Why does this all matter?

Some jobs provide a lot of self-gratification and some, unfortunately, are a miserable places that you cannot wait to escape, but at the end of every day, you have a choice to continue to think about it or to live your life and surround yourself with people and things that make you happy.

Work is not always going to be there, but your friends, family and your hobbies will be.

If you are looking for a career change, we are hiring!