Practice transitions/ mindfulness before you finish work each day
To aim to bring the best of you back to the home environment.
I found myself bringing home to work and work to home.
Transitions are a key part of helping me manage myself better and allowing
me to shift focus and energy between professional me and Dad me. But what
are transitions?
According to a dictionary definition; the process or a period of changing from
one state or condition to another.
As a concept, it sounds pretty straight forward but in practice, when I look
at myself, I could see a time where I was hopping between multiple roles
and not taking the time to consider how I needed to show up. This became
particularly apparent during Summer 2020 when we were in lockdown and
work was home and home was work. There was zero space to shift my focus
and from the back of that time I learned that if working from home was to
be a lasting element of life moving forwards, I had to create a boundary
somewhere at home where work could be work and home could be home.
I managed to convert part of my garage at the time in to a home office and
that simple 3 feet commute to work gave me the break I needed in physical
space to allow me to focus better on where I needed to be.
I appreciate some people may not have the space to physically distance
themselves like this but I also practice transitions in the form of a walk around
the block, walking to the shops, jumping off the bus a stop earlier or taking
that time to grab my coffee before I get to the office.
Like many things in this book, I am not perfect. But I am practicing. And for me
this is all I can expect if I want to be good enough. Transitions are also a great
time to keep up a level of fitness (step count!) and focus on some me time
(listening music, podcasts, books).
I tend to ask myself,
How do I need to show up at this next setting?
What do people expect of me?
What do I need to do?
Have I resolved everything needed to allow me to be
the best I can be in this next setting?
A powerful tool I think will help greatly.
