If your work day ends at 5pm, all conversations about work end at 5pm, too. I’m not joking. I was very skeptical about this one. I used to think that talking about my day at home was the thing that kept me sane and grounded. I was wrong. Routinely processing my work day at home was actually making me more stressed—and I was losing money! 

You see, I began to see the time I had been spending talking—and even thinking about work—as unpaid work. I was paid to work from 9-5. Why would I continue working after 5? When consultants work with a company, a billable hour can be when they are in the shower and have an epiphany about how to market a new product. I’m not a consultant, I don’t set my own hours, and I do not need to be spending time processing work stuff in the shower. When I began to understand that time as unpaid work, I was motivated to stop. Who likes losing money?

This new habit has actually impacted how I think and what I talk about in my home. I have reclaimed my home—no more processing that frustrating conversation with my cousin while I prepare dinner, or working through how I’m going to start a difficult conversation at work while I do laundry. Your home and your time are sacred. It’s time you start treating them as such.

How do you leave work at work? Tell us about it below in the comments.