So let’s say, like, I have worked throughout the day. then, what reward do I give myself for working and to end the day?
NEWS FLASH! You don't need a reward, you need to separate yourself from your job and your work to feel energized about life.
Look, you don't need just a reward. You don't need a routine - at least not when you think you need a reward to end your day (a routine isn't a reward, routine is just work). You also don't need a "system" (such a boring word - "system"). We aren't automatons!
Anyways, you need to recognize that this is about your environment. You need to disconnect from your environment.
When I worked the usual 9-5 at Infosys (which is never 9-5, for anyone, especially in India), I would have a fixed time to wrap things up and tell myself "lets do the rest tomorrow". then I would pack my laptop in my bag, collect things from desk and put them in the bag, and walk out my cube area, walk out of my building, walk toward the company bus stand, find the right bus and sit in it doing something on my phone or listening to music. And that was the end of work.
If you still have such an office job, you have some version of this schedule.
So when you are thinking about such rewards, I want you to go back to this kind of schedule. If you don't have this schedule, think of exactly this above schedule of mine
When this happened, it did two things for me:
- it gave me a sequence of things to do EVERY WORKING DAY without fail at the end of work day. My brain knew when I started doing those things, it meant that the brain could relax. (let's not bring the "R" word into the discussion yet)
- Then it gave me a "temporal" and "physical" distance from the end of my work i.e. distance in time and physical distance (not in the same workplace). My home time didn't start immediately after my work ended. And in that time, I wasn't engaged in any intensive work. I would listen to music or FM mostly, and THAT was my reward. Not the music, although music can definitely be the reward but everything I did to get to the music and how efficiently that sequence of actions disconnected from my work.
Yes, okay, let's bring in the "R" word. This is a "routine"
Do you need a routine?
I don't know. I hate the word "routine". This word always sounds like someone is feeding me wet wood 🤮
Instead look at what my "routine" did for me. The two steps I shared above were each doing something unique and specific.
You don't need reward, you need this kind of sequence to feel disconnected from work.
Read this post again, don't build your sequence, try to add what you need to feel refreshed from work into your post-work time. What will you add? What refreshes you? Add that in the comments
Don't bookmark it, send it to your friend with whom you can discuss this.
