Key Takeaways:

• Decompressing after work is a valuable skill that can improve health, mood, and productivity.
• Constant connectivity and a lack of boundaries between work and personal time, especially with remote work, make it difficult for many people to fully switch off and destress after the workday.
• Use technology to help you destress. Everything from dedicated digital spaces to meditation apps can support your efforts to turn work off - right from your phone, and often for free.
• Offline activities like exercising, reading a physical book, meditating, doing creative hobbies, or cooking can help you disconnect from technology and unwind after work.
• Shift offers powerful ways to separate work and personal life, with functionality designed to limit distractions and customize your digital environments.

For most of us, our work days are a hectic blur of meetings, emails, and to-do lists. After a long day of juggling everything and crossing tasks off of your checklist, how do you transition into a peaceful evening? For many people, that’s easier said than done.

The fast-paced nature of our lives often makes it challenging to shift gears, but decompressing after work is not just a luxury—it's a necessity for maintaining mental health and productivity. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of unwinding after a long day, suggest activities to help you relax and unwind—both online and offline—and demonstrate how easily you can transition out of work mode using Shift.

Why Decompressing After Work is Essential

Who doesn’t enjoy the feeling of relaxing? Most of us appreciate the feeling of turning off the “work” part of our brain and shifting into fun mode. However, there are actual scientific reasons for learning how to destress after work.

Reduce Stress Levels

Unwinding allows your body and mind to shed the stress accumulated during the day, which is vital for long-term health. Stress, if left unchecked, can lead to a myriad of physical and mental health issues. According to the Mayo Clinic, chronic stress contributes to anxiety, depression, fatigue, weight gain, memory loss, and more. By making time to relax, you can significantly lower your stress levels, contributing to better overall health.

Boost Creativity and Improve Mood

Relaxation is a source of rejuvenation. It allows you to process the day, let your creativity flow, and improve your overall mood. When your mind is at ease, it’s more open to new ideas and perspectives, enhancing problem-solving skills and creativity.

Scientific studies show that certain parts of the brain are more active during task-unrelated thought than during task-related thought, and frequently come online during episodes of mind wandering, daydreaming, and imagination. This means when your mind is not occupied with things you need to do, you have more opportunity to come up with your next brilliant idea.

Of course, if you’ve spent much time around chronically stressed out people, then you know they don’t exactly tend to be delightful. Alleviating stress is important for regulating your sleep, mood, and mindset.

Prevent Burnout

Consistently taking time to unwind helps prevent burnout, keeping you energized and engaged in the long run. Burnout can lead to decreased productivity and a sense of hopelessness, making the practice of unwinding essential for maintaining enthusiasm and motivation.

In fact, Pew Research says this is one of the big reasons for the “Great Resignation” in 2021. Following the pandemic and associated stress, many people felt they just couldn’t operate at that pace anymore - leading to one of the largest exits the traditional workforce has experienced.

The Challenge of Switching Off After Work

Just because you know stress is bad doesn’t mean you know how to destress after work. What stops most of us from decompressing?

Constant Connectivity

With technology keeping us connected at all hours, it can be tough to know when to stop working. Emails, notifications, and apps keep pulling us back in, blurring the lines between work and personal time. This is known as digital overlap, and it means that technology enables parts of our lives to bleed into each other - so we are never really “off” if we are connected digitally.

Related Post: How to Prioritize Mental Health in an Overconnected Digital World

Lack of Separation

Just as we need boundaries during our workday, we need clear rituals and methods for drawing the line between “work” and “rest” once the day is done. Creating a distinct separation can enhance your ability to relax and recharge. This is especially true for people who work remotely. When your home is your office, it becomes too easy to let work creep into dinner time, or answer that last email from bed at night.

Activities to Help You Unwind Online

Is more technology the answer to a problem partially caused by technology? In some cases, it can help! Innovation has led to a series of tools that can help you separate work and personal life and achieve better balance. Try some of these tactics for decompressing after work and promoting relaxation.

Listen to Music or Audiobooks

Create a "wind down" playlist to listen to after work. Whether it's soothing classical music or calming nature sounds, music can help shift your mindset and provide an instant mood boost. Alternatively, dive into an audiobook—listening to an engaging story can be a delightful way to relax without straining your eyes. Turn off your typical business book and tune into a light read.

Related Post: Spotify vs. YouTube Music

Use Meditation Apps

Apps like Calm or Headspace provide guided meditations that help you relax after a stressful day. These tools offer breathing exercises, body scans, or nature soundscapes that can calm your mind and set the stage for relaxation. They can also offer powerful guided meditations to help you fall asleep.

Journal Apps

In one study, adults were asked to spend 15 minutes journaling or drawing about a stressful event, or writing about their plans for the day, twice during one week. The people who journaled saw the biggest reduction in symptoms like depression, anxiety, and hostility, particularly if they were very distressed to begin with. Another study even found that journaling could make vaccines more effective.

Reflect on your day with an online journal. Journaling helps you process your thoughts, release stress, and end the day on a positive note. Apps like Day One or even a simple Google Doc can make journaling easy and rewarding. It doesn’t have to be complicated; it just needs to be a method for jotting down your feelings.

Using Shift to Transition from Work to Personal Time

More tech to the rescue! Simply switching your browser can help you make strides in decompressing after work as well as improving overall balance and productivity. Here’s how the Shift browser is helping people to make the work-personal time transition.

Easily Switch Workspaces with Shift

One of the most innovative features of Shift is the ability to create custom Workspaces that are tailored to a particular role or aspect of your life. Most people set up a professional browser and a personal browser, integrating specific tabs, accounts, bookmarks, etc.

Once 5 PM (or whenever your work day ends) hits, simply switch from your “Work” Workspace to your “Personal” Workspace in Shift. Instantly, all your work-related tabs, emails, and notifications are out of sight, and your leisure tools are ready to go. Gone are the project management and work emails, replaced with your favorite memes or whatever else makes you happy.

Personalized Workspace

Have your favorite streaming services, Spotify, or audiobook platforms pinned in your personal Workspace so you can click out of your work mindset and into your relaxing mindset immediately. Keep your journal app or meditation content accessible, allowing for a smooth transition from work to relax and unwind mode.

Creating these specific digital spaces allows you to help your brain switch from “work” to “unwind” mode.

Related Post: What is Shift Browser? One Window for Everything You Do Online

Offline Activities to Help You Unwind

Of course, getting offline altogether is an important part of unwinding and decompressing after work. Sometimes simply moving away from a screen and moving your body can go a long way.

Exercise or Get Active

Physical activity can help release tension. Go for a walk, stretch, do some light yoga, or dance to your favorite music. Exercise releases endorphins, which act as natural stress-relievers. There has been robust research proving the correlation between physical activity and improved mental health.

Read a (Real) Book

Settle down with a good book that you can hold in your hands. Reading a physical book can provide a deeper sense of relaxation and help you unwind before bed. Plus, you’re less likely to get pinged with notifications if you’re not holding your device.

Practice Mindfulness and Meditation

Take ten minutes to practice deep breathing, mindfulness, or meditation without any digital distractions. This time can significantly help clear your mind and reduce stress. If you haven’t meditated before, try starting with some guided options from the apps, but then move to doing it without technology support. Mindfulness can be employed anywhere at any time, so it’s a valuable skill in learning to destress.

Engage in a Creative Hobby

Draw, paint, knit, or engage in a DIY craft project. Doing something creative with your hands can take your mind off work and provide a sense of relaxation and fulfillment. If you aren’t sure where to start, try picking up a kit meant to make creativity easier - such as a paint by numbers or needlework kit.

Head to the Kitchen

Many people eat emotionally, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Rather, preparing a meal or baking something new can be a soothing and rewarding activity. Focusing on each step helps keep your mind off work stress while creating something nourishing.

The Art of Creating an Unwinding Routine

Consistency is key. Developing good habits that support work-life balance is key to making sustainable progress that lasts.

Define Your Evening Routine

Try to engage in similar activities each evening to signal to your brain that the workday is over. Start with closing your “Work” workspace, stretching, and then opening up your favorite audiobook or streaming app. Some people like to have a certain cup of tea or light a specific candle. Anything that tells your mind that “work is done; it’s time to relax” will be beneficial.

Limit Digital Distractions

Being done with your workday doesn’t really matter if you continue to get email or project notifications that grab your attention. Reduce distractions by turning off work notifications after hours. Let Shift help by muting work apps automatically when you switch Workspaces. This is a powerful way to make all the nagging work needs “out of sight, out of mind.”

Related Post: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Minimalism

Treat Leisure Like it Matters

Whether it’s watching a movie, listening to a podcast, or spending time cooking a new dish, being deliberate about your relaxation activities ensures that you truly disconnect. That means not scrolling through emails while watching your favorite show at night, turning off notifications when having dinner, and even putting your laptop away on a shelf when you’re not using it. Some people plot leisure time in their daily planner and treat it like an appointment that’s important to keep.

Final Thoughts on the Importance of Unwinding

Unwinding is crucial for reducing stress, preventing burnout, boosting creativity, and improving overall well-being. This has been proven again and again by research, and you probably don’t need us to tell you so. The issue is actually following through on destress efforts.

By taking control of your evenings and incorporating activities that work best for you, you can make the transition from work to relaxation a natural part of your routine. Shutting off work is often challenging, but with the right tools and mindset, you can cultivate a fulfilling and restorative evening ritual.