You finished work an hour ago... but your nervous system didn't get the memo.
You closed the laptop. You told yourself you were done. The chair is the same chair. The room is the same room. Your brain had no idea the day was over. You stayed, in the same chair, in the same room, and started doom-scrolling.
Before you know it, it's too late to start cooking dinner or having quality family time, so you put something together in a hurry (deconstructed leftovers, anyone?) or order takeout for the 2nd time that week. No conversation, just more screen watching and mindless chewing on whatever it was you ordered, before preparing for bed. You lie there, wondering to yourself where the last 5 hours went, and why your brain hasn't switched off yet. The alarm goes off. The cycle starts again.
I'm talking from my own experience, and have colleagues who have shared the experience too. This is the epitome of burnout: there are no clear boundaries between work and life, just one blend with a lot of white noise and signal tones, like back when the tv channels weren't on for 24 hours and shut off at 11pm. Burnout leads to decreased productivity, creativity and innovation: the lifeblood for an entrepreneur's business.
While working from home has many benefits, not having a daily commute to process the day and transition from one zone to the next can be problematic, decreasing a sense of well-being and increasing burnout, or the perception of it. The McAlpine and Piszczek Organizational Psychology Review shows that removal of the ‘classic commute' is a documented contributor to home-worker burnout.
Lehigh University research found that entrepreneurs who maintain clear work-life boundaries experience three times less burnout than those who don't. Not a small difference. A structural one.
Instead of forcing yourself to take a drive or a brisk walk around the block at 5pm while your brain is still buzzing with work, I have a solution for you, and it's smaller than you think. The fix is spatial, and it takes up about as much room as an armchair.
The Decompression Zone needs one chair, in one position and at one consistent moment. The chair could be on the porch, your balcony or in the garden. Your desk in your sightline keeps your brain in work mode, so as long as your desk isn't visible from the chair, and it's a space you enjoy being in, it qualifies. It should be a space that gives you time to reflect and preferably not watching a screen, but enjoying your favourite cup of tea (or your beverage of choice). Lastly, it must be at the same time, every day. This is what will train your nervous system that it's the end of the workday. Without this consistency, the zone won't work as effectively.
For how long? In truth, there's no magic number. What the research is clear on is that the transition has to actually happen, and your environment either makes that easier or harder. The quality of recovery matters more than the quantity.
Your nervous system is waiting for a signal that the day is done. The Decompression Zone is that signal. Dinner gets cooked. The conversation at the table is actually a quality discussion with your loved ones. You get into bed and your brain is quiet before 10pm. Not because you worked less. Because the day had a proper ending.
If you want to find out more about your workspace productivity personality, and which zone you can focus on first for a quick solution, then try my 2-minute quiz below.
https://dezyna.com/quiz/
Let's design the spaces that fit the life you're actually living, not the one on the vision board.
Chat soon,
N