I’m struggling to disconnect from work. I’ve been working on an interesting problem for the last couple of weeks (compacting change data capture events from sharded MySQL servers into BigQuery). It’s an interesting technical problem. There are lots of optimization opportunities and novel patterns I can introduce.
I’m on vacation for the next two weeks but since starting my trip my mind keeps returning to the problem. I’ve even solved a few issues and come up with new patterns to try while daydreaming as we travel. Obviously I haven’t implemented any changes, I deliberately didn’t bring my work laptop with me. I emailed those solutions to my work email address so they get out of my head but that hasn’t helped. I just visualized more optimizations while hiking today.
There is no expectations from my leadership to work while on vacation.
How do others disconnect from work when I enjoy the problem solving aspects of my work?
Human minds can readily jump to try to solve technical problems like the one you have to solve at work. Sure, it’s abstract in many ways, but it also is an external problem.
However, human minds are not very good at solving emotional problems. Trying to deal with thoughts and emotions like external problems usually leads to experiential avoidance. And avoidance creates even more suffering.
I’d recommend you check out ACT, to deal with your thoughts effectively. Russ Harris and Steven Hayes are both good sources, one being less technical than the other.