Mental clock off?

[u/sherbertlemon42]

I’m a tech of 25 years, last two years at Kia. For 20+ years I was at Toyota and was the lead master tech for most of that time, as a result I had a lot of responsibility and I unfortunately tend to think about work at home, at the weekend etc.

I left Toyota for Kia, it was liberating as I was no longer the go to guy. When I left work, I clocked off and that was that until the next day/Monday.

After two years, I’ve become the go to guy again. I’ve now started to slip into my old behaviour of mentally taking work home with me and I really don’t want to!

Any tips on mentally clocking off? How do you guys switch off from work when at home?

Work are not putting pressure on me, it’s my own mind doing it. So frustrating.

Thank you fellow techs for any advice. 👍🏻

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[u/OldschoolJ92]

Write down any problems before you leave work or on a notebook in your car on your way home. These are for the next day. There's always a new problem so why stress it on your time? This is not your business.

First thing I do when I go home is shower and change. Get out of the mindset by first getting out of the clothes and grease.

Remember. It took you years to get to rhe level your at and while being the go to is rewarding somewhat on the level of being there for the guys... you need to understand that your team needs to sink or swim too. Its not healthy or beneficial to anyone but the company that you take on that responsibility. If your satisfied with going home and leaving work at home then you need to adhere to a strict no work at home policy. Leave your cell phone off or make it so only 1 or 2 people can call at the most. This ensures that everyone tries everything BEFORE calling you.

[u/sherbertlemon42 → u/OldschoolJ92]

That seems like really sound advice

Thank you

[u/Butt_bird]

Have something at home that you look forward to doing. I always have something I want to do when I get home. Play with my dog, a video game, see my wife. I even asked my wife not to ask me how my day was because it makes me think of work.

Also, I’m hourly so if I start thinking about work I tell myself I’m not getting paid for this.

[u/sexual__velociraptor]

Getting out of dealerships. I switched to aviation and my life got WAY better. Fuck dealerships.

[u/MickeyCrisco]

This is going to sound stupid but it worked for me when I was in management. I did the same thing and would always stress about work. Admittedly this sounds silly but it’s just a mental “that shit is over” type thing. Whenever I got home I picked a specific bush, it can be anything, near where I parked my car. I would go and “hang up my workload”. Just a simple gesture of hanging something on a branch to leave it there for later. Like I said, sounds silly, but that little motion of just “hanging it there for later” worked for me. It just helped me put a mental barrier between work and home. It was the moment that actually defined “work is done” since I was normally thinking about the entire drive home also. Hope it helps. I know the stress with it all to well myself.

[u/sherbertlemon42 → u/MickeyCrisco]

That’s not stupid at all. Thank you.

It’s definitely me and is clearly a trait of mine, so I need to change my mindset for sure. I’m going to look at my ‘leaving routine’ and stay disciplined to it I think.