The first day my dad drove me to my summer job on the automotive assembly line, his advice was simple:

Leave work at work.

When you go home, hang your work hat up and leave it all there because nobody wants to hear you complain when you get home anyway.

He deeply understood an older paradigm that your place of employment was not who your life. It was simply something you did.

In an industrial era where communication wasn’t as ubiquitous, this was an easier commitment. The work/life balance so many crave today could be solved as easily as going home and leaving the stress of the day at the workplace.

Home time was your time.

In today’s world, this is becoming increasingly difficult as the bloated career advice of being a personal brand is tied to your identity and place of employment. Coupled with the barrage of easy ways to access workplace stresses (email, Slack, etc.) and it’s no wonder burnout is on the rise.

Also, the workplace is mired in distractions that the inevitable solution is to finish work outside of office hours.

Germany has gone to some lengths to sever this tie, forbidding employers to contact their employees beyond work hours, but there are still those in need of taking their work home (I think specifically of teachers, but many other careers have their own homework).

How can a work/life balance be struck with such demands?

The advice of my dad is still as relevant today as when he told it to me: leave work at work.

Yes, you might have to take some paperwork home, but relegate it to a household chore that needs to be done rather than an extension of the workplace. Your workplace (even if you’re self-employed) pays you for your output, not to stress out all hours of the night.

And if you can swing it, a vacation always helps.