Why is this important?
If your life is all work, you’ll lose perspective. Small work issues cause outsized emotional responses. You work extra hours to squeeze marginal improvements because work is your only activity and sole source of self worth.
With other activities (social, physical, intellectual) that engage you, you can deal with the many imperfections of your job more gracefully. You’ll laugh them off. You’ll be able to let go and not obsess over every little thing. It won’t stress you as much.
Yeah, I'm going to have to get out more. I work remote in a city where I don't know anyone, so I spend a lot of time at home. Couple that with programming being my sense of self worth from a young age and having a PR get a handful of comments makes me anxious. Bad habit - I know.
Seek therapy for anxiety. I say this as someone who "didn't need a therapist" until finally reaching a breakdown point.
Again, sleep is the NUMBER ONE most important thing, especially for an engineer.
Not sure my wife or kids would appreciate that one...
Second, I'm going to be real blunt here and this isn't going to help me in any interviews but it needs to be said. Ask yourself a serious question, "Is this job worth my suffering?". If you need time away to go on a walk, learn how to paint, read a book, hiking, or just working on a side project, you need to ask for it. If you're lucky enough to be a job that will understand that then take advantage of it. If your job makes it more difficult then don't stress but it might be time to try to find another job. If a company asked me to work 60+hrs a week I would laugh. If I wanted to work 60 hours, they wouldn't need to ask. Also it's very freeing to take your job less serious and in all honesty, I see improved performance when I'm in that mood.
Some people say pick up a non-related hobby... I think it's simpler than that, really. Just think of what you want to do at any given time and go do that in your time off. My problem in the past has always been making excuses to not do the things I actually wanted to do in my spare time.
There's a bunch more I could speak on this but I think this is fine for now. Go do something fun. Do what you want to do.
It's called ruminating. You do have to train yourself to stop thinking of work past a certain point. It's unhealthy and doesn't make you more productive. The 9-5 actually makes it worse, because you're helpless outside office hours.
The proposed solution is to acknowledge that it's anti-productive. And if you really have to think about work, do it in a productive manner - plan out a schedule, read a book, don't feel helpless.
Use lunch time to break up your day so that you mentally have progress rather than a uniform slog that you get if you eat at your desk. It also forces you to get stuff done asap and manage your work better.
Outside of work, side projects helped me stay mentally fit and overall happy, energized. Combined with exercise that will help you perform at work over time.
Trying to have fun is important
For example, I find grandstanding by higher ups stressful. “Just get it done” “this needs to be done in 3 days (ignoring any estimates)”
I also create my own stress by perfectionism.
Depending on the cause that would determine the solution.
You might be helped by a psychologist, by changing teams/roles, assertiveness training or just having hobbies to switch off after work.
Having spent a lot of time working for financial institution I must also add, that they might be the least rewarding workplaces.
Perhaps look for a job in a product-oriented company instead. In my experience, there is a difference.
I’m not sure I understand how you can be in banking and in the bottom 40% salary of your country though.. isn’t banking well paid (comparatively to other industries) everywhere?
