Hard day at work, long commute home, hours spent on your phone, naps but you are still tired. Whether you have a 9 to 5 job or you are a freelance, work takes a good deal of your time and energy. Regardless of the profile of your work, you get home physically and mentally tired. While the physical energy is relatively easy to restore, mental energy is very tricky.
Yoga, meditation and other mindfulness practices sound good but in reality, not all of us have the time and the capacity to follow them. So, how do you get revitalized and ready for the next working day? The bad news is there is no secret recipe that will work miracles for everyone but there are different things that you can try and choose the one that fits your needs and lifestyle.
Without further ado, let’s jump to discussing how to reduce street at home after work.
Change your clothes
We all know that our style says a lot about us and what we wear can either boost our confidence or make us feel uncomfortable and even ruin our day. You put a lot of thought into what you should wear to work – it turns out, you should also be thinking about what to wear at home.
It sounds very basic but changing from your work clothes to a more comfortable outfit will make a lot of difference. You don’t have to spend hours in front of your wardrobe – just get your favorite t shirt and a pair of sweatpants, and you are ready to enjoy your free time at home.
Dive into your guilty pleasure(s)
Whether it’s rewatching Friends for the hundredth time or reading the new Nicholas Sparks book, you can turn to your guilty pleasures to relax and take your mind off of work related issues.
Guilty pleasures have the power of soothing but it’s very important to be mindful about them. If your guilty pleasures are fast food, sugar or other harmful things then avoid them and choose the neutral ones like movies, songs or books. It is not self-care when you are damaging your health.
Don’t take work home
This is perhaps the most important point of this article. If you want to reduce stress at home after work then do NOT take the work home. I realize that in this day and age, it is very hard to separate work from personal life but do your best.
Even if it’s a 2-minute task that you thought you’d do at home just to get out of work as soon as possible, still do it there – it’s going to haunt you at home. Don’t bring your work laptop or documents home, don’t check emails (unless it’s urgent) and make sure your co-workers or partners know about your working hours.
There are dozens of different applications and websites that schedule emails and posts, use them to avoid after work tasks.
Minimize the chores
Chores are a big source of stress at home that we often can’t skip. Procrastination is no good and eventually, we have to face the pile of dishes sitting in the sink and that laundry that needs to be folded. However, there are still some things you can do to minimize your chores.
For instance, use dishwasher instead of washing the dishes by hand, choose the iron setting on your dryer to skip ironing. You can also get a robotic vacuum cleaner to not do it manually. Vacuuming is noisy and it takes time but with a robotic one, you can tackle two or more chores at once.
Spend time with family and friends but appreciate your alone time
Spending time with your loved ones can help you de-stress, have fun, and restores energy. But then again, it comes down to you and your preferences. A dinner or movie night with friends and family is great for your mental health but you may also need some alone time to clean your energy and let your body slow down.
At the end of the day, to find the best way of reducing stress after work, you need to follow your own patterns and identify which method helps you the most.