Never take work home with you.

'Never take work home with you' is the most difficult rule I have. 

Those books in the corner. The stack of papers you forgot to do. You need to separate work and home. The physical reminder of your job.  

You may spend a little more time in your own office or classroom, but you will feel a hundred times better. You wouldn't find a copper bringing home a criminal or a nurse dragging ill people to her home. Home is a sanctuary. Make sure it remains one.

If you ignore this rule you need to be aware of what you will suffer. The retention of marking or of other projects you have to complete at home will simply eat up your time. It will also mean you are thinking about work when you should be unwinding, spending time with your loved ones or letting your brain drift off.

E mail is the modern curse. If you have a blackberry or some other mobile phone that will accept your work e mail make sure it is switched off when you are trying to relax. Get another phone for work maybe.

Your stress at work needs to stay at work. You will maybe have the luxury of living with a teacher, someone who understands the stress, the strain. But if you go home and start to discuss the awful day you have had you will just end up reliving it. It will mean that you end up stressing about work from 9 until 5 and then from 6 until you finally hit the sack. You need a physical and a mental break. Give yourself headspace.

Even more important is not taking your stress home to someone who does not work with young people or teach. They will know what you do, but don’t take the anger, the fear, the stress home with you because while they will sympathize they will not always understand. And if not careful you can risk alienating the ones you love. I'm lucky, my wife has a pressured job as well and we can exchange frustrations and talk through them.

Golden rule: taking work home means your home becomes just an extension of your job.


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