COLUMN : why AW is good for you

when working from home, the line between being on the clock, and off it, quite often gets blurry. for those of us who don’t have an office, class room, workplace, or studio to spend our days in, making those lines more distinct again is of the essence.

now, i don’t mind the line being thin. work often seem like play to me, and i enjoy having my work also being a significant part of my lifestyle. thin lines i can handle – blurry lines … not so much.

to stay healthy, and to be able to sign off and de-stress, i need my after work ritual. this is all new to me, and a lot of days i don’t manage it properly, but i have every intention of getting it to where it has become a habit. a natural part of my everyday life.

the whole point of my AW ritual is to wind down, to create a space in my day dedicated to moving from work to relaxation. to create a no man’s land if you will. this space can look different from day to day, i don’t mind that. it just needs to be time and energy dedicated to redirecting my mode from productivity to repose.

the most common AW ritual is of course having a drink, either with co-workers or friends, or alone when we get home from the office or wherever it is that we work. it’s understandable, alcohol is something most of us would never have at work, so a drink instantly signals to our brains that we are now off duty. also, having a nice glass of wine is something of a treat, a luxury. it can create an atmosphere of glamour, relaxation, and decadence. an effective way to reach that no man’s land of after-work-before-night-time relaxation.

but effective as it may be, i don’t want to have a drink every night. i don’t even want to have a drink every week.

so i’m experimenting with other ways of reaching that mindset of clocking out, relaxing. of luxury, calm, and decadently spending time on simply winding down. today i’m sharing my favourite wind-down at the moment.

since having a drink like a beer or glass of wine is what AW means to most of us, i’m sticking with the tradition, just making it a glass of something non-alcoholic instead. to have the wanted effect, i need to make it a good drink. it can’t be a cup of tea or something else that i have anyway throughout the day. it has to be something that i’d only have on special occasions, to signal to my brain that this is luxury off-time. kombucha, a nice juice drink, sparkling water flavoured with fruits, berries, apple cider vinegar. something cold and inventive. with some pre-dinner snacks, like fruits, nuts, roasted chickpeas, olives – something we’d normally have with a drink. creating a moment of pure pleasure through catering to my tastebuds.

i often have this drink with david – just talking about the day, how we’re doing, what’s on our minds. either listening to my jazz playlist, or one of david’s one-hit wonder 90s classics. it’s a lovely way to round off the day – starting it with a productive morning meeting, and finishing with a mellow AW drink.

a couple of days in the week though, we take care of our own AW. as you might know, me and david spend all of our time together. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. so we try to get some alone-time in there too. this is difficult, because normally we really just want to continue hanging out, but it’s definitely necessary to split up once in a while to stay sane.

so spending my after work alone as i see fit is a good way to get some quality jenny-time. and having my drink by myself after a long work day is surprisingly lovely. an hour or so before dinner is all it takes really. and recently i’ve enjoyed spending it either writing, reading, or bloglovin’ cruising. it’s almost a waste of time. and that’s exactly what i need to balance out that workaholic part of myself.

doing something simply because it’s enjoyable and relaxing. not to reach a future goal or learn something valuable. that’s my AW ritual.

and just like that, i’m ready to go into the kitchen, cook something nice and meet up with david again.
ready to leave that no man’s land and get on with life once more.

love // jenny

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