How do I work to live, instead of live to work?

Question

I had a realization talking to my wife last night that I've been very bad at letting a job just be a job for a while, something I enjoy doing, certainly, but also something that just exists primarily to pay the bills.I recently took a job as a software lead at a Finnish company and, barring some unusual cases I got handed early on, it's going quite well. But I am realizing that now is the time to really learn to dial in my 8 hours and spend my rest time doing other things, like continue to practice the language with friends and support my wife in her studies. I'm finding it hard to create that kind of distance mentally from my work, and I hope some of you can help. Thanks.

thfuran · Accepted Answer

Do you have hobbies? You should have hobbies.

DuNSG · Answer

My opinion is you should ask your self the questions below: What is life? Is life the work you complete or is it the way you perceive it? What do you want your life to be? How do you want to spend the seconds of your existence? This is a path you need to walk alone and determine what you really want. Good luck.

ode2 · Answer

I think Routine is key. Slot it into your daily schedule.
I started learning how to cook during covid. After the initial novelty factor wore off, I was getting lazy with the process, doing things last minute, taking shortcuts, if I needed ingredient x and didn't have it I would add y producing half baked crap etc. And this was happening even though I was really curious about it all and interested in getting better.
So one day I decided, half an hour just after waking up instead of scrolling through the phone, I was going to devote to planning the daily cook. This worked out great cuz instead of getting aggravated about the news or work emails or whatever I was day dreaming about what to cook. Now its become an automatic thing.