The Power of Planning: Use This Simple Tool to Eliminate Stress and Enhance Recovery

The demands in the workplace in this digital age can be very high. It is often difficult to detach oneself from work, even when the work day has long been gone, and you are already at home, spending time with your loved ones. If work disrupts your sleep, the situation may be severe already. How can one ensure adequate recovery and remain productive even in high-workload situations?

I work as a product manager, and I have to admit, it’s a tough job. Work amounts consistently exceed what is possible to get done in a given time. Despite this, I have not lost my sleep about work lately. Much of it is because I have been actively utilizing various protocols to mitigate the effects of high workloads on my recovery. In this post, I will describe the methods I use to reduce the amount of work-related rumination that can negatively impact my recovery during the evenings and weekends and provide some scientific background on why those protocols work.

This story first addresses what keeps us stressed about work outside office hours, why it is detrimental, and how one could mitigate its effect or even rid oneself of it completely. In the end, I will describe a protocol I use myself to detach from work, ensure high-quality recovery, and keep myself productive day in and day out. It is very…