The Importance of "Checking Out"

I consider myself a subject matter expert on "Checking Out" lately - I underwent surgery on March 10th and have been down for the count longer than I expected. I barely looked at email the first two weeks. I wasn't in the office for a month. And guess what? An amazing thing happened. The world did not end. My company did not explode. Most importantly (and not surprisingly), my team has done an awesome job and stepped up in my absence.

Most of us feel the need to be constantly connected to work; always in tune with what's going on. As an organization that conducts multi-day in-room classroom training, I see this all the time. People step out of the room (despite planned breaks and the fact that their company is paying for them get the training) in order to take a phone call or respond to emails. It's unfortunate they don't get the full benefit of the training. Mostly I feel bad that they're missing out on the energized, refocused, and recharged feeling you get when you're able to truly give your full attention to one thing at a time.

If any of this is sounding familiar, I challenge you to start taking steps TODAY to get to a more balanced place where you can "check out"... whatever that means for you. It could be taking some time off of work, or it could be setting better boundaries, more clear expectations of your availability, or it could be having a "no-email" at dinner rule.

For those of us who are not robots, having an "always on" mentality can negatively affect your health, your personal life, your loved ones, and your employer.

1) Health - If you are sacrificing your health to work more hours or meet that deadline, it will inevitably catch up with you. So you choose - do you want to take the time to take care of yourself and be healthy now or do you want to deal with the repercussions (and expense) later? Either way it will cost you time, so don't trick yourself into thinking you don't have time. One way you will get to choose how and when to use that time, the other way you will be forced to (and probably not at a convenient time).

2) Personal Life - Are you living true to your purpose? Are you accomplishing things that are important to you on a personal level? Are you doing things that make you happy? Are you happy with the cleanliness of your home? Or do you feel like you have a to-do list that just keeps growing and growing and you push all those things you want to experience into the perpetual "some day"? When you're not giving your personal life enough attention, all of these things sit in the back of your mind and cause a constant state of low level stress.

3) Loved Ones - Do you give your job more attention than your spouse or your kids? Do you bring your stress or anxiety about work home? Does it cause you to be distant, aggravated or edgy around them? That's probably not what you want and it's definitely not what they want.

4) Employer - If you're unable to disconnect for even a 2 day training class, your employer is too reliant on you. Don't get caught up in the reasons why it has to be this way or why they're so reliant on you because honestly, it doesn't matter what the explanation is. It's still bad for you and for them.

So are you convinced? If so, just know that the steps you need to take to able to "check out" will be different for each person. That being said, I don't want to be one of those people who writes an article convincing you that you need to do something but then doesn't tell you how. I hate that! So here are a few ideas.

1) Share knowledge with co-workers. Involve them in things they should be involved in. Information hoarding does not give you job security, it gives you a annoyed co-workers, a sense of isolation and a headache.

2) Maintain a list of what you're working on, general responsibilities and related tasks. This can also be a great tool to communicate progress with your boss. You might even realize that you're doing a different job than what you were originally brought on to do.

3) Document processes (when it makes sense). If you follow the same steps to do something, write it down or create a workflow diagram. It will help the person who covers for you when you're out. It can also make your work more efficient and higher quality. You'll be able to follow the workflow rather than trying to remember all the steps, so you'll make less mistakes. You can also communicate these steps to your team and stakeholders to provide clarity and seek opportunities to improve.

4) Plan for "check out" time and communicate your plan. It's important to talk with your manager about the need to "check out" and how you plan to do it in a way that won't impact the business.

5) Get support from co-workers (and support them too). Odds are that they would also like to go on vacation occasionally or attend their kid's baseball game without being bombarded with issues from work. Identify a few people on your team who can be your back up, and do the same for them.

I really believe that with some preparation and planning, being able to "check out" is attainable for most professionals. I'd love to hear your thoughts and other ideas that have worked well for you. Good luck!