In HR it isn’t hard to leave the office. The hard part is getting the office to leave you.
I’m Nara, the mascot of Human Resources professionals.
Almost a hundred years ago, a psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik noticed something curious in a restaurant: the waiters remembered with precision the orders they hadn’t served yet. However, shortly after bringing them to the table, they could barely recall what each customer had ordered.
That observation gave rise to one of the best-known phenomena in psychology: our brain tends to keep active the tasks and conversations it feels haven’t finished yet.
While I was reading about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about those of you who work in Human Resources.
Because often you don’t take work home. You take conversations, people, decisions that stay open in your head long after the workday has ended.
And, almost without realizing it, part of the work keeps you company when it should already have given way to your personal life.
That’s why, this week, I want to share with you three skills that can help you mentally close the workday and leave work at work once you’re home.
Skill 1
How to teach your brain that the workday is over
Our brain doesn’t understand schedules. It understands closures.
When it feels that a conversation, a problem or a decision is still open, it keeps devoting attention to them, even when you’re no longer working. It’s a way of trying to prepare for what’s coming, but it often achieves the opposite: prolonging the wear.
That’s why, before ending the workday, spend a few minutes writing down what’s still pending. Not to solve it in that moment, but to leave a clear signal that you’ll come back to it when the time comes.
Sometimes the brain doesn’t need an immediate solution. It just needs the certainty that it won’t have to keep reminding you constantly.
Skill 2
How to be a person again before being a professional
Those of you who work in Human Resources spend a large part of the day supporting others. You listen to concerns, look for solutions and hold conversations that, in many cases, carry a significant emotional load.
Over time, it’s easy for that role to end up taking up more space than it should and, without you realizing it, for you to keep responding to the world from your professional role, even when the workday is already over.
Creating a small transition ritual can help a lot. A walk before going into the house, listening to music on the way or simply devoting a few minutes to something that connects you with yourself. It doesn’t change what happened during the day, but it does help the brain understand that another moment is now beginning and that it’s worth being present in it too.
Skill 3
How to get home without still solving work in your head
The brain has a natural tendency to look for solutions when it perceives a problem. That’s why the most difficult conversations often come back precisely when you’re already home, driving or trying to rest.
However, thinking for longer doesn’t always mean thinking better. When the mind is tired, it usually repeats the same ideas over and over, without finding different answers.
In those moments, it can be more useful to ask yourself a simple question: “Is there anything I can really do about this today?” If the answer is no, dwelling on it will hardly change the situation.
Resting is also part of the work. Because many of the best decisions don’t appear while we keep thinking, but when we give the brain the space it needs to recover clarity.
Working on these skills isn’t about adding more tasks to your day. It’s about giving the brain the signals it needs to switch context when the workday ends.
They’re small gestures that take barely a few minutes, but that can make a big difference in how you end the day and how you start the next one.
That’s also the philosophy with which we design Imantia’s learning experiences.
Through our Humántica® methodology, we work on the balance between body, mind and emotion to help people access the best of themselves when they most need it. Because talent doesn’t depend only on what a person knows. It also depends on their ability to keep clarity, manage pressure and respond with judgment, even in contexts of uncertainty.
In the end, big changes often aren’t needed. It’s enough to give the brain the right tools so it can do what it’s already prepared for.
If you’d like to explore this approach with your team, Berta will be glad to listen and help you find the learning experience that best fits your organization.
Until next time.
— Nara
