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Shutting it off

Weezer

Weezer

Active Member
My line of work involves a lot of diagnostics or "troubleshooting" if you will. I work with computers, control systems, monitoring systems, etc. I'm fairly certain that many on the spectrum tend to gravitate toward this type of work.
A common problem for me is the work/life balance. I had one this week that I didn't get figured out before we closed for the weekend. I have spent my weekend running scenarios, symptoms and possible causes through my head. I should have been spending my weekend with my wife and enjoying the first decent weather we've had in months. Instead I was researching.
How does one "leave it at the door" when it's time to go home?
 
Weezer said:
My line of work involves a lot of diagnostics or "troubleshooting" if you will. I work with computers, control systems, monitoring systems, etc. I'm fairly certain that many on the spectrum tend to gravitate toward this type of work.
A common problem for me is the work/life balance. I had one this week that I didn't get figured out before we closed for the weekend. I have spent my weekend running scenarios, symptoms and possible causes through my head. I should have been spending my weekend with my wife and enjoying the first decent weather we've had in months. Instead I was researching.
How does one "leave it at the door" when it's time to go home?
Click to expand...
You just don't turn it off.

To quote Rambo, for example:
"It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win, but somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world, and I see all those maggots at the airport, protestin' me, spittin', callin' me "Baby Killer!", and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me, huh?! Who are they, unless they been me and been there, and know what the Hell they're yellin' about?!"
First Blood - Wikiquote
 
Weezer said:
I should have been spending my weekend with my wife and enjoying the first decent weather we've had in months. Instead I was researching.
How does one "leave it at the door" when it's time to go home?
Click to expand...

It is one of the things people do. Being prepared, wanting to not make any mistakes, searching out all the possible eventualities that you can. It's probably what makes us who we are, as our brains want to know everything. Even though that's really not possible.

It's hard to turn off, but it's good to be ready. Find that I can't stop or relax or enjoy myself until every thing is considered and done. Finally though it's enough and you've run all the ideas/scenarios/possibilities so many times over and over that you become tired of it. And you want to turn to something else for relief. So you don't have to think about it anymore.
 
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It keeps me from sleeping at times. However, I have came up with solutions in the middle of the night. That makes it easier to sleep.
 
I have the same problem at times. I teach, so I'm always thinking of my next lessons etc. I'm not sure how to shut it off. Even with other work that didn't take so much preparation.
 
It's like a compulsion. When I can't figure something out, I just keep thinking.
When something is coming up the next day I must do, I can't sleep.
Sometimes I get so tired of hearing my mind just not shutting off.
Finally falling asleep is about the only way it shuts down...for a while.
 
@Weezer,
Did your research churn out any good ideas?
(How to leave work at work?)


There’s nothing quite like a good problem that needs a solution, to have me constantly thinking about the problem.
 
Unfortunately I can't control what my mind decides it's going to work on, and it's part of the way I process things, like a programme constantly running and working in the background of whatever else I'm doing, but which often threatens to take over. It helps me solve problems, so I just let it. (edit) Resistance is futile :)
 
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Weezer said:
My line of work involves a lot of diagnostics or "troubleshooting" if you will. I work with computers, control systems, monitoring systems, etc. I'm fairly certain that many on the spectrum tend to gravitate toward this type of work.
A common problem for me is the work/life balance. I had one this week that I didn't get figured out before we closed for the weekend. I have spent my weekend running scenarios, symptoms and possible causes through my head. I should have been spending my weekend with my wife and enjoying the first decent weather we've had in months. Instead I was researching.
How does one "leave it at the door" when it's time to go home?
Click to expand...
In my career, I came across many instances where the Earth was "wrong." The problem is that in geology and geophysics, nothing is ever actually wrong, just unexplained. Some of these problems would form a resonance in my brain, and I would be unable to let go. I knew there HAD to be an explanation, and finding it would become an obsession, even after the solution was no longer relevant.

I can't help you leave it at the door, but at least you are not alone.
 
Maintain a balance. Take some time to think it over for sure, I mean it's work. Still family's just as important as work if not moreso.
 
A coworker suggested that I dig a hole in an imaginary pit and put home in there on the way to work and work in there on the way home. That sort of thinking did not work for me.

Instead, I picked out a ditch on the side of the road to put my problems into

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.
 
How are you at some self discipline and making choices?

To me it’s completely understandable that the work you do is important to you and diagnostics and solutions are things you pride yourself on,

If you can explain that to your family and ask for some time to work on a solution at home ...But,

It would only be say, a couple of hours.
(That’s where the self discipline and making choices comes in)

Getting up earlier than the family to work on it ?
or finding a couple of hours out of the whole weekend to do your thing?
... but you will have to direct your thoughts to family (making a conscious choice) after that couple of hours, not start to obsess and continue.
?
 
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