There are several triggers that help burnout invade the intimate confines of our homes and families.
My advice? Just don’t do these things for the next two weeks, and then, if you’re feeling less stress, keep on not doing them.
If your stress doesn’t diminish at all, feel free to come back and leave a comment to let me know how wrong I was.
1. Don’t check email at home.
For two years during my ministry, I lived alone in a small house with no cable and no internet (and sometimes no furnace, but that’s unrelated).
During that time, people sent me emails during evenings and weekends, and I didn’t read them until I got back to the office.
This literally never caused a single problem.
If you have a smartphone, I know how tempting it is to check email while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store just because you’re bored …
… but don’t do it. You’ll thank me later.
2. Have a procedure for real emergencies.
If there is a real emergency, and sometimes there are real emergencies, make sure you have a clear process for people to get through to you.
It might be a specific phone number or some kind of text message code that you develop.
Either way, make sure people understand what constitutes a real emergency and what doesn’t constitute a real emergency.
The stuff in the second category can wait.
3. Leave your laptop charger at the office.
I take my laptop home with me every night and will work on a few things in the evening after the kids go to bed.
But if I’m doing more than a few hours of work, that’s a problem.
Leaving your laptop charger at work creates an automatic shut-down point where work stops and real rest begins.
