Of all the downfalls of commuting to
work (of which there were a few), it turns out there was an interesting upshot.
Distance.
Two hours each way between work and home
to be exact.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my job.
Sometimes a little too much. But it can be stressful. And I took for granted
how healthy it was to have space and time between work and home.
Now I'm a 10 minute bus trip away from
work. It's amazing. But an unsettling side effect has been the return of some
old habits, like staying back at work and bringing work home - both literally and in my
head.
I think a lot of people struggle with
this issue of boundaries. When you enjoy your job or you care a lot about it,
it can be consuming and it can be a challenge not to bring it home. Whether
it's overt - like talking about it non stop, or less obvious, like finding
you're upset, snappy or distracted because of something that occurred during
the day.
At a conference I sat through years ago a speaker was
talking about this and came up with the idea of the third space - the necessary
in-between space between work and home. For some people it's a commute, a long
drive home, a song, for one CEO it was actually building a separate entrance to
his home where he could shower off his day and change out of his suit before he
saw his family.
Without the funds to build myself a new
entrance, I have opted for a walk. I have discovered that if I walk home from
work, I can give myself 30 minutes to process my day, shake out any stress and
worries. By the time I get home I can make a conscious decision to leave my day
behind. This allows me the headspace and the energy to be all the other things
I want to be and do.
Do you have a third space? Do you need
it?
(Image via the chicdepartment )
