One thing about me, I do not bring work home.
This is a practice I have prioritized on since I started my career. Being able to separate work and home is important to keep my peace.
I used to go home, make sure I didn’t miss any emails and rack my brain thinking about tasks I had to do the next day and never be able to truly feel calm. Granted, my entire life at that moment was work, train, popcorn, sleep but even allowing the continuous thoughts to overtake my evenings was unhealthy.
I started being able to put it down. And encouraged myself through small reminders that helped me remove any guilt.
“Nothing is an emergency”
“We are not saving lives.”
“It can wait until tomorrow.”
Due to being an overachiever I thought I had to always respond quickly in order to be seen as satisfactory to my co-workers and my boss. Respond quickly like within the minute quick.
But once I was able to establish that my success and value to a company does not equate to the amount of evenings I let go of, I found myself being able to take a step back.
I have concrete boundaries that I don’t shake from. I don’t talk to Cree about work that much because I don’t want our moments to be all about what we talked and did all day. Of course I spill office tea, but then I like to focus on us and our life.
When I start new jobs I like to set expectations in a healthy and respectful way so my peers and boss knows what they can get from me. On vacation, absolutely nothing.
But day-to-day, when I reply to a late teams ping or am guilty of sending one a little too early, these are the exceptions and not the rule.
All day, I take care of my team, deal with MANY personalities and overall am always running around.
So, to get to go home and peel off the layer of code switching and corporate attire and just BE in my own home with my own thoughts is an accomplishment that I’m truly proud of.
Cree probably wouldn’t even know anything about my job if we were long distance because I truly don’t care to share.
And don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. I’m great at it and enjoy the folks I work with.
But I enjoy me time more.
So let me encourage you to turn your notifications off, to set an alarm to close your laptop, and to prioritize you. Own your evenings, and your mornings, and your weekends.
They’re yours.
All my love
JMoore
Day 19/30
