How To Keep Your Work From Creeping Into Your Personal Life

With some jobs, you truly do have to be available to work 24/7: think doctor on an on-call day. But most jobs don’t require giving your work this level of access to your personal time. So why is it that many people—likely you if you’re reading this article—feel like they’re never really able to turn work off completely?

In my work as a time management coach, I see that this “work creep” falls into two big buckets: work you need to complete, and interruptions from others who want something from you. With both buckets, you can proactively reduce the amount of time work intrudes in your personal life with some simple, yet powerful, time management strategies.

WORK YOU NEED TO COMPLETE

If work outside of when you want to be working happens primarily due to your own uncompleted tasks, you’ll need to push back more during the workday to protect your time after hours.

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