How to Relax After a Hard Day

You had a challenging, productive, and
sometimes stressful day at the office.
You then battled traffic to
make it home.
Now you need to put your mind at ease, recharge your
battery, and refresh yourself so you can do the whole thing again
tomorrow.
Yet the house is a mess, the kids are restive, and your partner
wants to know what you're cooking for dinner (yes, it's your
turn!)
Or perhaps things at home are relatively calm, but your mind is
anything but. Try as you might, you just can't stop turning over
the day's events – and obsessing about tomorrow's challenges. Your
evening leisure hours have been stolen by work thoughts – and
before you know it, it will be time to go back.
If either of these scenarios describes your after-work evenings
and weekends, you might need to work a little harder at something
that seems like it should come easy: Taking a well-earned breather
after a long day at the office.
Like most other tasks, relaxation is a skill – one that repays the
effort of learning it. Mastering the art of relaxation off the job
can make you more rested, focused, energetic – and successful – on it.
Does relaxing really matter?
If you're having trouble resting your mind away from the office,
you already know it. But what are the consequences? Here are just
some of the troubles the tired and relaxation-challenged face at
work:

Difficulty concentrating.
Bad moods and rising workplace conflict.
A lack of new ideas or fresh insights.
A loss of enthusiasm for, and enjoyment of, their jobs.

Combined, these unfortunate tendencies can highjack the
highest-flying career. Learning to chill might be your most urgent
task!

Tip:
With all the other demands on our time, relaxation can
seem a low priority – even an indulgence. Fight this
attitude: If work is not to turn into an exhausting hard
grind, relaxation is key to your success and your overall
happiness. Learn to prioritize off-work fun – and take it
seriously!

How to Relax
We suggest a three-pronged approach to relaxing after work,
involving your body and mind, your home environment and what you
do in your time off. It may take you a little while to will set
everything up for relaxing after work, but once you have you'll be
able to enjoy your "down time" more as well as recharging your
batteries so that you're raring to go the next morning.
Relaxation techniques

Start by reading our article on deep breathing, progressive
muscular relaxation and the relaxation response to learn how to
relax your body. And take a look at the relaxation techniques
section of our stress site for some other useful techniques.

Although relaxation is important, your body can only be truly
prepared for the next day if it gets the amount of sleep it needs.
Our article on Getting a good night's sleep offers several tips to
help you increase the quality of your sleep without needing to
spend any longer in bed.
Taking the stress out of your home environment

Clean your house, free your mind: If your relaxation problems stem
from a stressful home life, you probably need to focus on making
your house a calm haven. This will take some up-front energy – the
actual act of changing habits may not be particularly relaxing –
but it has potential to pay serious mind-clearing dividends.
The first step is to consider your messiness level; most people
find it hard to relax in a chaotic home. When you arrive from a
long day at work, are there dishes piled up? Are clothes strewn
throughout the bedroom? Adopt a house rule common to restaurant
kitchens the world over: Clean as you go.

Tip 1:
The old-fashioned saying "A place for everything and
everything in it's place" has a lot going for it. This goes
for dirty clothes and used crockery and utensils too: Ensure
there is a hamper in every bedroom and a place to stack
dirty plates and cups so that no one in the house has any excuse for leaving these lying around.
Tip 2:
If your house is tidy but still seems cluttered, perhaps
you've just got too much "stuff"! Consider getting rid of
things you don't need.
Tip 3:
If you can afford it, consider hiring a maid or cleaner.
Would you rather spend 5 or 6 hours a week cleaning and
ironing, when you could spend that same precious time doing
something that really uses your talents?

Much depends on dinner: Modern life has made
dinner both a challenge and an opportunity. It's a challenge
because modern working and commuting have made it difficult to
share a leisurely, well-cooked home meal with family and friends.
Yet it's an opportunity because there are multiple time-saving
options for the evening meal.
One strategy for maximizing relaxation is to plan dinners for the
week ahead. If this seems excessive, stop for a moment, and think
about what you're doing from a project management perspective.
You're sourcing materials, and creating deliverables for three or
four people over a seven day period to a fixed schedule. Would you
do this at work without planning ahead?
A plan like this opens time and headspace for real relaxation. As
with your to-do list at work, keeping everything in your head is
stressful. Once you've got it down on paper, you no longer need to
remember every detail. Your mind can relax!

Tip:
Everyone has to eat, but food preparation can be drudgery.
One solution is to use convenience fare, although you
sacrifice some flavor and nutritional value. Another option
is to make cooking your hobby – and making eating an art.
The cookery book market is awash with excellent tomes on
everything from French cuisine to Asian street fare. Have
fun exploring them!

Engaging your mind

So, now your body is calm, you've sorted out housework and brought
dinner to heel. What do you do with all the time you've opened up?
The trick is to find a way to engage your mind, to take it away from work, so you can be more present at work when you go back.
For many people, the fast-and-easy way to forget work is to
self-medicate with alcohol. But this solution muddles rather than
clears the mind, and will return you to work feeling depleted, not
refreshed. What's more, in excess, it can damage your health.
Here are some better alternatives:

Indulge in a hobby.
Many of us have interests we've been too busy for years now to
develop. But there's no more healthy way to take your minds off of
work than immersing yourself in some fascinating pursuit.
Do you love to be outside during the warm months? Try your hand at
gardening, even if it's just in planters on your balcony. Have an
eye for design? Take woodworking lessons and make your dream
chair. Learn to create gourmet meals through cookery books or by
taking a class. Take up a musical instrument. Do some volunteer
work. The trick is to find something you love doing, and then –
within your time and budget – throw yourself into it.
Be a connoisseur.
Sure, overindulging in drink has its obvious problems. But
enjoying an after-work tipple is a time-honored practice, and it
can be reasonably healthy when done in moderation. So why not take it
one level higher, and really learn to appreciate the subtleties of
wine, beer, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages?
Get to know your wine merchant – and seek his advice. Once you
develop your palate and learn what you love, consider starting a
collection. If fine wine seems too pricy for your budget, think
beer. The trick here is to make your daily tipple an event – an
experience that unites mind and body through contemplation of
sensory pleasure.
Take up a sport.
Exercise offers all manner of opportunity to clear our minds and
take them off work. For many, though, modern exercise machines are
tedious – devices that enforce repetition and never let us forget
we're exercising. For people with this mindset, an organized sport
might prove the way forward. Team sports work the body to the
maximum while requiring the mind's full attention – a complete
diversion.
If you didn't learn to play a particular sport as a kid, but are
intrigued by it anyway, consider taking a class. Many community
colleges offer adult classes in everything from indoor rowing to
fencing.
Look to the East.
If exercise machines and competitive sports don't do it for you,
you might look to Eastern forms of relaxation: Yoga, tai chi,
martial arts, and meditation. In Eastern philosophies, mind and
body represent a union, not two separate entities. More and more
over-committed, stressed-out Westerners are turning to the Eastern
traditions to combine exercise and relaxation.
Yoga studios have popped up seemingly everywhere, making it more
convenient than ever. Yoga comes in a variety of styles and
difficulty levels. The Chinese practice of tai chi is a more
contemplative, slower option, while martial arts like Tai Kwon Do
are more vigorous and athletic. Anyone who struggles with Western
form of exercise and sports should experiment with these
increasingly accessible options.



Key Points
Relaxing in your leisure time is an important factor in your
success at work. More importantly, it can be what makes life fun!
But to get the most out of this precious commodity, you need to
set a few ground rules and plan what you want to do.
First, use physical techniques to relax your body after work and
clear it of tension and adrenaline.
Next, adopt habits at home that mean you're not coming back to a
messy environment after work, and consider decluttering, if
there's still too much mess.
Then, work out a system for evening meals which means that cooking
and eating becomes an enjoyable social activity, or at least a
quick and efficient process.
Finally, fill the extra time these approaches create by spending
time on a rewarding activity that will take your mind off work.