Four Tips On How To Wind Down After Work
It’s Wednesday evening and you’ve just gotten home from work. You’ve completed your commute, taken your shoes off and you’ve put your dinner in the oven, now what do you do? Check your emails, stress about tomorrow’s workload? When our work takes up such a big chunk of our day to day lives it can be easy for it to consume every aspect of our week, but downtime is important too. Take a look at our tips on how to wind down after a long day to help you wake up refreshed and ready for anything the next morning.
Put your phone down.
We don’t mean you’re not allowed to skim through social media or send a few SnapChats, everyone loves a Facebook binge, but if you’re accustomed to checking your email inbox every 30 seconds you’re doing yourself more harm than good. Thinking about it rationally, are you going to have many more emails from your office to your home account after 7 pm? Especially when you left work at 5:30?
Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule but, for the most part, constantly having one eye on work is going to prevent you from being able to relax and prepare for the next day. Shut down Google, close your Gmail app and log out of your work account. Emails can wait until tomorrow.
Debrief
You might not have written a diary since you were in high school, but jotting down your thoughts at the end of the day can be really therapeutic. Whether there’s a note from a meeting you need to remember or you had an argument with Sue from HR, letting your thought’s out is a great way of leaving the day’s events at the door, allowing you to start with a fresh head tomorrow morning.
Plan for the next day
If your job changes minute by minute, then this can be difficult, but if you tend to have a relatively clear idea of what you need to do for work day to day, planning it out can be really helpful. There’s no need to craft a seventeen-page itinerary complete with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation and handouts, just write down any tasks you know you have to get done, or meetings you know you have scheduled. This way you can relax knowing you’re prepared for the day ahead, without worrying that you’re going to forget any vitally important details.
Get ready for the next day
When it comes to work, the daily fight between an extra hour in bed and putting down the dry shampoo long enough to wash your hair can be a struggle. And that’s without even considering what you need to wear, what work documents you need to take with you and where on earth you put your keys. Luckily, these are all things that can be prepared for the night before.
Wanting to shower each day is understandable but, if you can, squeeze in an extra half an hour the night before to wash your hair to save time the next morning, ditto with planning out your outfit and packing your bag. That way you’ll leave the house feeling your absolute best, whilst also having snuck in an extra half an hour in bed.
Work can often take up such a big percentage of our lives that it’s easy to forget how important it is to relax. By simply following these easy steps you can be sure to have a relaxed and, for the most part, work free evening. Leaving you fully prepared to tackle the next day head-on.
Jess Howard writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships. To browse our graduate jobs London listings, visit our website.
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