At a Glance
Always-on work culture can blur the boundary between work and personal time, contributing to stress, poor sleep, fatigue and reduced motivation. Creating clearer boundaries by limiting notifications, setting finishing times and changing checking habits can make it easier to disconnect. Professional support such as hypnotherapy may also help address persistent work-related thoughts and stress.
How to Switch Off From the Always-On Culture
For many people, work doesn’t really end when the workday does. You might close your laptop at 6 pm, but you’re still attached to your phone. An email flashes up while you are cooking dinner. A colleague sends a message while you are watching television. You remember something you need to do tomorrow while you are trying to fall asleep. Even if nobody is contacting you, you’re still thinking about work.
This has become very normal, particularly since more people started working from home or working partly from home. But constantly being connected to work can make it much harder to relax properly. Over time, this can increase stress, affect sleep and leave you feeling mentally exhausted.
So how do you learn to switch off after work? Explore this guide on why it’s becoming harder to switch off from the always-on culture and learn practical ways to set work-life boundaries.
What Is the Always-On Culture?
The always-on culture is the idea that we should always be available for work. Sometimes this is because an employer genuinely expects people to reply outside working hours. But often there is no official rule. People start feeling they should check their emails, respond quickly or keep an eye on what is happening.
Smartphones have made this much easier. Work emails, WhatsApp groups, Slack, Teams and other messaging apps mean you can be contacted almost anywhere. Hybrid and remote working can blur the work-life boundaries.
If you work from home, you might spend all day working at your kitchen table and then sit down for dinner in exactly the same place. There is no commute home and no obvious point where work finishes.
This can affect office workers too. You might physically leave the office, but if your work email is on your phone, work can still follow you home.
There has been a lot of discussion about millennials and always-on work culture, but it is not limited to one generation. It can affect people of all ages.
Why Is It Becoming Harder to Switch Off?
One reason is simply that work is now much easier to access. Years ago, if you left the office, you usually left your work computer behind. Now most people can access emails and messages from their phone, which makes it too easy to keep checking. You might then see something that needs dealing with, or something that makes you worry about the following day. This means your brain can’t properly switch off after work.
There can also be pressure to reply quickly. If everyone else in your team seems to answer messages in the evening, you may feel awkward leaving yours until the morning. You might worry that you will look less committed or less organised.
And then there is the pressure to be productive all the time. Many people find it difficult to do nothing without feeling guilty. Even when they are technically off work, they still feel they should be catching up, planning ahead or getting something useful done. That makes it harder to properly rest and switch off.
How Constant Connectivity Affects Mental Health
If you are still thinking about work throughout the evening, it means you are not getting much of a break from it. You might be eating dinner while thinking about an email, watching television while checking your phone or getting into bed and suddenly remembering everything you need to do the next day.
When you don’t know how to switch off after work, over time, it can increase stress and anxiety. Some people also become more irritable, feel tired most of the time or struggle to concentrate properly because their attention is constantly being pulled back towards work.
Motivation can also drop. Work that would normally feel manageable can start to feel like a lot of effort, particularly if you never feel as though you have properly stopped. Sleep is another common problem, especially if you have been answering emails late into the evening or thinking about work right up until bedtime.
You may lie there replaying conversations, thinking about tomorrow or mentally working through your to-do list. If that affects your sleep, work usually feels harder the next day, which can then add to the stress you are already feeling.
7 Signs You May Be Experiencing Digital Burnout
Some of the most common signs of digital burnout include:
- You find it hard to relax after work: You have stopped working, but you are still thinking about it.
- You keep checking your work emails or messages: You may find yourself doing it automatically, even when there is no reason to expect anything urgent.
- You feel guilty when you are not working: Rest can feel unproductive and you may feel as though you should be getting something done.
- Your sleep has got worse: You think about work when you go to bed or wake up with work already on your mind.
- You feel tired even after time off: Weekends or days off do not leave you feeling properly refreshed.
- Your motivation has dropped: You feel less interested in work or find it harder to get started.
- Work is affecting your mood outside work: You may feel stressed, distracted or irritable when you are supposed to be having time off.
You do not need to experience all of these to have a problem with always-on work culture. Sometimes the clearest sign is simply that work is taking up too much of your time and attention outside your actual working hours. All you need to do is notice, acknowledge it and start creating better work-life boundaries.
6 Practical Ways to Create Better Work-Life Boundaries
If you can’t switch off from work, it can help to make the boundary between work and home more obvious.
1. Turn off work notifications
You probably do not need to know every time an email arrives, so try switching off work notifications after a certain time or removing email and work messages from your lock screen. You can still check them if you genuinely need to, but you do not need to be interrupted every time something comes in.
2. Decide when work finishes
Choose a time when your working day ends and try to stick to it as much as you reasonably can. There will always be exceptions, particularly if you have a deadline or something genuinely urgent to deal with, but an occasional late evening is very different from checking work every night. This can help in setting a clear work-life boundary.
3. Write things down before you finish
If thinking about unfinished jobs doesn’t let you switch off from work, it can help to write down what needs doing before you log off. A short list for the following day can stop you from repeatedly trying to remember everything later, especially when you are trying to relax or go to sleep.
4. Put work things away
If you work from home, close your laptop and put it away if you can, rather than leaving it open on the dining table or sofa all evening. If you have a separate room to work in, that can make things easier, but even simply packing your work things away can help make the end of the day more obvious.
5. Take proper breaks during the day
Working straight through does not necessarily mean you get more done, especially once your concentration starts to drop. Try to get away from your screen for lunch, go outside for a few minutes or move around during the day. Get in some exercise regularly if you spend most of your working hours sitting down.
6. Notice when you are checking work out of habit
Sometimes you check your phone because there is a genuine reason to, but other times you may be doing it automatically out of habit. If you notice yourself opening your email again, ask yourself whether there is actually anything you need to deal with right now. If there is not, leave it until your next working day.
Can Hypnotherapy Help You Switch Off From Work More Easily?
For some people, switching off notifications and setting better work-life boundaries makes a big difference. For others, the bigger problem is that they continue thinking about work long after they have finished. You may stop working at a reasonable time but still spend the evening replaying conversations, worrying about what might happen or mentally going through everything you need to do the next day. If this sounds like you, you can consider seeking support from hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy can help with stress and anxiety and can also help people become better at relaxing once the working day is over. It may be particularly useful if work worries are affecting your sleep or if your mind keeps returning to the same thoughts.
During hypnotherapy, we can work on the habits and thought processes that are keeping you focused on work when there is nothing useful you can do about it at that moment. The aim is not to make you care less about your job, but to help you spend less of your own time thinking about work when you do not need to.
When Professional Support May Be Helpful
Most people have periods when work is stressful, but if you are thinking about work most evenings, checking emails constantly or struggling to sleep because of it, it may be worth getting some extra support. The same applies if you are becoming exhausted, anxious or increasingly fed up with work and the always-on work culture, particularly if it is starting to affect your relationships or how you feel outside working hours.
Solution-focused hypnotherapy can help reduce stress, improve sleep and help you respond differently to work-related worries. It also focuses on what you would like to do differently, such as leaving work alone once you have finished for the day, sleeping better or enjoying your evening without repeatedly checking your phone.
If the always-on culture is making it difficult for you to switch off from work, hypnotherapy may help you get better at leaving work until the next working day. Contact Susannah to find out how her bespoke services can help you take back control.
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