?? ?? How do you disconnect?

Welcome to?Talent Bites, your weekly dose of short and relevant talent insights ??

This week I want to explore work/life balance ?? Something I have always struggle to master myself!

To kick off - what do you think a Kenyan lawmaker, a restaurant manager in France and a Portuguese minister have in common?? ???? ?? ????

They’re strong advocates for the right to disconnect after working hours. That means no more work calls as you’re sitting down to dinner or weekend emails ??

If you work in sales, you'll know this is half-way through the quarter, so stress levels are notoriously high. I came back from Christmas and promised myself a balance, yet constantly catch myself feeling over-whelmed and anxious.

If unlike our overseas peers, you struggle with work/life balance and disconnecting, here are my 4 top tips that could help:

1. Book & pen by bed ?? - Research* suggests that writing down your thoughts is a simple yet powerful technique for managing stress and improving overall well-being. By taking a few minutes each day to jot down your thoughts, you may be able to reduce stress, improve your immune function, boost your mood, enhance cognitive function, and sleep more soundly.
2. Visualise tomorrow ?? - I personally like to visualise myself going through my day, what do I want to achieve from each meeting, hence what do I need to prepare! Visualisation can also help to reduce stress and anxiety by promoting a sense of calm and relaxation, by imagining positive outcomes and situations, we can promote positive emotions and reduce negative ones. Research*** has shown it can also improve physical function by promoting neural plasticity and strengthening neural pathways associated with movement, resulting in better coordination, balance, and muscle activation.
3. Writing tomorrow's to-do list ?? - Taking the time to do this can help to reduce anxiety by providing a sense of control over our tasks and reducing the cognitive load of trying to remember everything we need to do. It can also improve productivity by providing a clear plan of action for our day and reducing the likelihood of procrastination.**
4. Mindful exercise ???? - Again, none of these are rocket science and something I'm sure you all do. However, as much as I know yoga, pilates, meditation is good for me, I still find myself not doing it! Are you the same? Amongst many benefits, mindful exercise can enhance self-awareness by promoting an increased awareness of physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts during exercise. As well reducing stress by reducing the physiological and psychological effects of stress on the body.

In short:? these studies and others like them suggest that downloading thoughts, visualisation, committing to a to-do list and finding time each day for mindful exercise can have a range of benefits for our physical and mental well-being, and can be a useful tool for improving mental health, physical health, attention and focus, reducing stress, and enhancing self-awareness - therefore, enabling us to disconnect from work more easily.

Share in the comments – how do you maintain balance? Are you able disconnect after working hours? I'd love to hear from you.??

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And if you found value in this, please share with your network.???

See you next week ??????

* Baikie, K. A., & Wilhelm, K. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(5), 338-346.

**Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667-683.

***Frank, R., & Yeo, N. L. (2011). The effect of mental imagery on climbing-specific finger endurance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(8), 815-822.