The Privilege of Clocking Out

Last week, I started working in direct support full-time again, after 15 months away. Yes, it needs some form of adaptation to get used to the “boxed” schedule, but it also helps with cadence, routine, and organization.

It requires a shift in mindset. I now prepare my lunch the night before. I get ready to go for my walk five, maximum ten minutes after I stop for my two-hour break in the middle of my day.

Time is constrained in many ways, and the benefits are immense! Time is also constrained into these scheduled hours. Once I turn my computer off, my mind stops thinking about what I did during the day or what I didn’t do. I am done for the day—and this includes my mind!

I trust the system we have in place and I know others will keep working on what I left behind—an answer from an email I sent earlier today will be picked up by the next Happiness Engineer. Not only that, but I don’t have to worry about it.

It seems obvious or simple to most people, but it’s not. I was having a burnout a month ago, stressed, not being able to sleep, with insomnia every night. And one of the first rules to deal with burnout is to change your routine. I did. Big time.

It’s a privilege to be able to turn off the “work-voices” in your head when you turn off the computer. Not many roles will let you do that. But technical support is one of the few that does.

What boundaries have you drawn—or failed to draw—between your work and your life?