Happy Fourth of July*, everyone!

*Note: For those outside of the U.S., today is the day we celebrated our freedom from the British back in 1776. The U.S. is officially 240 years old today.

So in honor of Independence Day, I thought I’d write a blog post about declaring your independence…from the job. In this day and age, it’s incredibly too easy to stay connected to your workplace 24/7. Now, you can access your work email from any computer, any smart phone…and your boss has no problem contacting you over the weekend about a project that must be completed by Wednesday. That’s the problem though. When does it end?

Here’s the thing that you must remember: unless you work on-call (or have a job that requires you to work past business hours), then it is your LEGAL RIGHT to dismiss work activities until you arrive back at the office. If you determine a situation to be urgent, and you think you should answer that call/email, then by all means, do so. You can certainly make that decision. But my point is, don’t be afraid to disconnect from your job. Because once your job becomes your whole life, you may find yourself losing everything else around you that makes you happy.

Below are some tips I have for giving yourself a mental break from the office. Please take them. And go enjoy the rest of your day off.

• Turn off the work cellphone.
• Turn off the automatic Outlook sign-in on your personal laptop.
• If necessary, let your colleagues know that you will be unavailable to take calls/requests over the weekend.
• If possible, keep your work files at work.
• Focus on what’s right in front of you.
• Think happy thoughts.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. Thanks for reading! 🙂