Design engineers: Can you shut off your brain during non-work hours?

[RJSV]

   When I was 27 I started the lap swimming thing, largely possible due to somewhat unique flex schedules, that employer established.  That was the start, of manipulating my day and long commutes in often horrific traffic, both sluggish traffic and dangerous fast chaos traffic. (That's where you could witness someone risking life and limb to gain a lane change or other trivial advantage, when traffic flow gets fast.  Rain?  They (drivers generally) didn't care about rain or safety.
   So, that heavy regular exercise helped a lot with being able to get to sleep.

   Worse, though, than electronics development stresses, are the various office interpersonal interactions and the need to have a career interaction, with large corporate entities, and electronics has a newness compared with more 'mature' markets, but the corporate novelty is lessened these past years...not so much like 1978 I guess.
   Insomnia in itself, without work stresses can be a challenge, but medical folks have various advice like reducing the room light, keeping temperatures down, etc.

   Office politics is a bigger and less tolerable stress source, than basic product development.

[Microdoser]

Personally, I think people become engineers precisely because they can't stop their brain from solving problems, even during 'down' time.

[Nominal Animal]

Personally, I think people become engineers precisely because they can't stop their brain from solving problems, even during 'down' time.

Or scientists.

Although I'm not sure "they cannot stop" is the best description; more like "they don't want to try to stop", i.e. they find it a comfortable, natural way of approaching the world.  I know I do.

Of course, when you decide you want to try something different, it can be hard, but that tends to be true for any new behavioural pattern.

[TimFox]

My usual approach with 3am emails, even if I see them arrive live, is to disregard and only respond during working hours. The goal is to incentivize healthy and socially stable working hours.

Unless there is a serious emergency (fire, explosion, etc.), I agree about 3 am e-mails.
Some people are awake at 3 am, especially in different countries and time zones, and send the e-mail while they are awake.
When working with a Japanese company in the fax days, we exploited the time difference:
I would send a question there at the end of business in Chicago, the recipient would have a full working day to write an answer, and I would receive my answer by the beginning of business on the next day.

[Microdoser]

Personally, I think people become engineers precisely because they can't stop their brain from solving problems, even during 'down' time.

Or scientists.

Although I'm not sure "they cannot stop" is the best description; more like "they don't want to try to stop", i.e. they find it a comfortable, natural way of approaching the world.  I know I do.

Of course, when you decide you want to try something different, it can be hard, but that tends to be true for any new behavioural pattern.

I'm not addicted, I can stop any time I like

[DiTBho]

5 years ago, in the surgery room, not under total anesthesia, so I was conscious

me: hi Doctor, nice to see you.
surgeon: you look at me with a strange expression
me: I was actually taking a look around, and I see there is a monitor, can I watch it?
surgeon: what?
me: I'd like to see how you operate
surgeon: this is a full prosthesis(1), we have to open the leg, and there will be a lot of raw meat ...
me: ... raw meat
(I smiled at this expression, thinking about how, with the scientific method,
I first clean the inside of the turkey at Christmas, and then put it in the oven)
surgeon: are you really sure you have the right stomach to handle it?
me: sure, but... can I also ask a few questions?
surgeon: um?
me: about the titanium part, about the tolerances of the couplings
surgeon: X_X
me: and about the torque wrenches I saw on the table, ...
surgeon to the anesthetist: I think this guy wants to steal my job ...
anesthetist to the surgeon: umm, I am not sure ...
anesthetist to me: can I ask you a question?
me: sure
anesthetist: I guess you are an engineer, right?

I wonder how he figured it out 


edit:
(1) hip prosthesis

[Georgy.Moshkin]

no need to shut off anything if you do not have an anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks. But if you have some of these and yet have a good planning skills, good experience with solving engineering problems, then maybe it's time to shut off the work, not the brain. Brain should go low power by itself when there is a plan and dividing of tasks in smaller pieces.

[RJSV]

   I DO have a related job and stress thing that's been helpful to myself, during sleep time:
   In a stressful setting (at work), when tossing and turning at end of sleep time, (assuming you aren't doomed to respond to alarm clock madness), there is a technique for how to start your next day.  In other words, for the transition you would need to make, to wake up, get up, and start your new day.
It works like this:
   Suppose, as you've been glancing at your bedside clock, and must get out of bed soon, suppose you have been starting to run the day's tasks ahead, in your mind....Messed up this, and messed up that.  Now, as all those thoughts circulate, what you want to do is WAIT for a positive thought and situation, like suppose a co-worker, 'Jim' has done a few really good management items at the job, and now this Jim guy is building a new manufacturing fixture, or something...
   That's it:  that's the point in time, (laying there still in bed), that you should start up, rise up and get moving, on that positive thought.  Doesn't have to be spectacular, just maybe a little smile, and thinking positively, " That Jim really is going to make this organization move up to a better positioning, in marketplace".   Whatever, but you get the idea, just use some minor positive aspect, as a sort of trigger, saying 'Ok that's it, I should get out of bed, now'.

(Starting day grumpy isn't going to help).

[Ed.Kloonk]

5 years ago, in the surgery room, not under total anaesthesia, so I was conscious
.../

People think that anaesthetic was invented for patient care and comfort. It was so the doctors can concentrate without the patient doing so much screaming, or worse, being a chatty one.