You shut your laptop well past 5 p.m. You get up, put away a few dishes, then collapse onto the couch and turn on The Office (again). But as Jim drops Dwight’s stapler into a mold of Jell-O (again), your mind drifts back to your unfinished to-do list.
So you pull your laptop back out, telling yourself you’ll just knock out one quick task. But then you spot a few emails that “can’t wait,” and a Slack from your boss that says it’s not urgent but still feels like it is. Before you know it, it’s 9 p.m. and you’re still stuck in work mode.
Sound familiar?
Working from home promised freedom and flexibility. Instead, it’s become a trap where work hours stretch endlessly, invading every corner of your day. The line between “on” and “off” has blurred so much it sometimes feels like it doesn’t exist.
The truth? You’re not logging off. You’re just pausing while your brain stays wired to work.
If you want to reclaim your time and sanity, you need more than just closing your laptop. You need to learn how to truly shut down.
Here’s how.
1. Fake a commute to reboot your brain
There’s a reason your daily commute wasn’t just a drag — it was a boundary marker. That 30 minutes (or two hours) spent going from work to home gave your brain a moment to shift gears. It was your mental “off” button.
When your commute disappears, you have to create a new transition. Set aside 10 to 15 minutes after your workday to step outside, walk around the block, or even just sit quietly with your phone off. This signals to your brain: “Work is over.”
This little mental reset can make a huge difference. It breaks the loop of switching from one Zoom call to scrolling Instagram to trying to sleep with your brain still in work mode.
2. Make a dedicated workspace and close the door on work
Working from home often means working everywhere — the couch, the bed, the kitchen counter. But when your work zone overlaps with your personal space, boundaries blur and stress rises.
If you can, create a dedicated workspace. It doesn’t have to be an entire room — a corner with a desk or even a laptop tray counts. When you sit there, you’re working. When you leave, you’re off.
This physical boundary is critical for your brain to associate certain places with work and others with rest.
No space for a home office? No problem. Set a clear rule that you won’t answer emails or check work apps outside “work hours.” Then stick to it, no exceptions.
3. Kill notifications and enforce digital quiet hours
Notifications are the biggest sneaky productivity killers — and emotional triggers. That Slack ping or email alert at 8 p.m. feels urgent even when it’s not. The ding hijacks your focus and drags your brain back into work mode.
So turn them off.
Set your status to “Do Not Disturb” after hours. Mute Slack, email, and any other work apps on your phone and computer. Don’t peek. If you must check, set a timer for 10 minutes max — then close everything again.
This step forces your coworkers to respect your offline time, too. If your team culture demands 24/7 availability, start a conversation about boundaries. You’re not lazy — you’re protecting your mental health.
4. Resist the hustle culture trap
There’s a toxic myth that long hours equal dedication. That if you’re not grinding late into the night, you’re not good enough or ambitious enough.
Remote work has made this worse because the lines between work and life are already so blurry.
Here’s the truth: working all the time isn’t sustainable, and it won’t make you better at your job. It’ll just burn you out.
Burnout looks like exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced performance. It’s the opposite of hustle.
So stop glorifying overwork. Set firm start and end times. Hold yourself accountable. Your worth is not measured by your screen time.
5. Create an end-of-day ritual that’s offline and intentional
Scrolling through Instagram or TikTok after work feels relaxing, but it’s often just another version of distraction.
You’re still engaging your brain, just not with spreadsheets or emails. Your brain never really shuts off.
Instead, build a ritual to mark the end of your workday — something offline that grounds you. It could be cooking dinner while listening to music, journaling for five minutes, a quick workout or reading a book.
The goal is to send a clear signal to your brain: “Work is done. It’s time to rest.”
6. Accept that “done” is enough
Here’s the brutal reality: you will never finish everything. You’ll always have one more email to send, one more report to tweak or one more Slack thread to catch up on.
You have to learn to say “enough” and stick to it.
Set a cutoff time and don’t work past it. If something’s urgent, it’ll wait until the next day or someone else will handle it. Trust that your work won’t fall apart because you took a break.
This mindset takes practice. You’ll feel guilt at first — that nagging “I should be doing more.” Let it pass. Over time, your brain will start trusting that rest doesn’t mean failure.
Working from home is here to stay. The blurry line between work and life might never fully sharpen.
But you can control how much work takes over your life.
It starts with simple, intentional choices: create space, shut down notifications, build mental boundaries and respect your own limits.
Logging off isn’t quitting. It’s not slacking. It’s choosing to be a whole person, not just an employee who’s always “on.”
Your work will thank you. So will your brain.
If you’re still reading this with one eye on your inbox, close the tab. Log off. And for real — go for a walk.
