From Desk to Outdoors: Simple Ways to Switch Off After a Busy Working Week

From Desk to Outdoors: Simple Ways to Switch Off After a Busy Working Week

For many women building careers in the UK, Friday evening doesn’t necessarily mean work has finished. Hybrid working, leadership responsibilities, caring commitments, and the ease of checking emails from home can make it difficult to protect the boundary between professional and personal time.

That separation matters. Research into recovery from work identifies psychological detachment – mentally disengaging from work during non-working hours – as an important part of wellbeing. A longitudinal study of 664 employees found that detachment from work and good sleep were particularly important recovery processes (Kinnunen & Mäkikangas, 2023).

Switching off doesn’t require a perfectly planned wellness routine or an expensive weekend away. For women navigating professional responsibilities and busy personal lives, small changes can create a clearer stopping point at the end of the week.

Create a Clear End to the Working Week

Flexible and hybrid working can offer greater control over the working day, but they can also blur the physical distinction between work and home. When the kitchen table doubles as a desk, simply shutting a laptop may not feel like much of a transition.

Create one instead. Write down unfinished tasks and Monday’s priorities before you finish. Close work apps, silence unnecessary notifications, and, where possible, put your laptop and other work equipment out of sight.

Changing your surroundings can help mark the shift into personal time. That might mean walking through a local park, taking the family to the beach or spending a few hours in the garden. If you plan to stay outside for a while, practical items such as portable seating from Ozzi Gear can make a park afternoon, a sports fixture, or a weekend trip more comfortable without turning them into elaborate outings.

The important part is the change of pace. You are giving yourself somewhere to be that isn’t connected to meetings, inboxes or deadlines.

Don’t Turn Downtime Into Another Achievement

Women are often encouraged to become more efficient: manage their time better, optimise their routines, exercise regularly, and make every spare hour count. Leisure can easily become another category to manage well.

Resist the urge to make your weekend another performance target.

You don’t need to wake at 6 a.m. for a long hike to benefit from getting outside. Walk to collect a coffee. Read in the garden. Meet a friend for a walk instead of sitting indoors. Take the children to a park and leave your phone in your bag.

Research has found positive associations between green space and aspects of mental well-being, particularly life satisfaction, although researchers caution that the evidence varies according to how green space and well-being are measured (Houlden et al., 2018).

Outdoor time is therefore better viewed as one practical way to change your environment, move a little and create distance from work, rather than as a cure for workplace stress.

Protect the Boundary Between Career and Personal Time

For many women, switching off isn’t simply a question of self-discipline.

Investing in Women’s research illustrates why. Its 2026 Women at Work Survey examined the experiences of women across the UK, including those building careers, balancing work with caregiving and currently outside the workforce. Nine in 10 respondents said flexibility was essential rather than a perk, while workload and stress were among the recurring concerns reported (Investing in Women, 2026).

Among women returning after a career break, the boundary problem is particularly clear. Research on Investing in Women’s Return Ready found that 58% struggled to maintain healthy work-life boundaries after returning (Investing in Women, 2025).

That makes it important to distinguish between personal habits and workplace responsibility. Turning off notifications may help, but it can’t solve an unrealistic workload or a culture that expects constant availability.

Where your role allows, agree on reasonable communication expectations, resist routinely checking email outside working hours and raise workload problems before they become normalised. Sustainable careers require boundaries at both an individual and organisational level.

Use Movement as a Change of Pace

After a working week spent in meetings, travelling or sitting at a desk, movement can offer a welcome change. It doesn’t need to involve training for an event or tracking every kilometre.

Current UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance recommends that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, alongside muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days. Adults are also encouraged to break up prolonged periods of inactivity (Department of Health and Social Care, 2026).

A brisk walk, gardening, cycling, an easy countryside route or playing outdoors with children can all contribute.

Choose a movement that fits your energy and circumstances. If you have spent the week meeting deadlines and hitting targets, your weekend activity doesn’t need another metric attached.

Give Your Attention Somewhere Else to Go

It can be difficult to stop thinking about work simply because you tell yourself to stop.

An absorbing activity offers another approach. Gardening, photography, cooking, reading outdoors, walking a new route or spending time on a hobby can give your attention something tangible to focus on.

Keep the threshold low. Rather than deciding you need to “have a proper day out”, start with an hour. Rather than planning an entire weekend away, visit somewhere local.

This can be particularly useful during demanding points in a career. A new role, a promotion, a return from a career break, or a period of organisational change can leave work occupying more mental space than usual. Building regular periods when your professional role isn’t the centre of your attention can help preserve room for the other parts of your identity.

Remember That Wellbeing Isn’t Just a Personal Responsibility

Advice about switching off can become unhelpful when it implies that people experiencing work-related pressure simply need to relax more effectively.

Workplace conditions matter.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Health and Wellbeing at Work 2025 report found that heavy workloads were the most commonly reported cause of stress-related absence among organisations experiencing such absence (CIPD, 2025).

For women, that pressure may sit alongside caring responsibilities and other demands outside paid work. Investing in Women’s research similarly highlights the role that flexibility, workload and caring responsibilities play in women’s experiences of employment in the UK (Investing in Women, 2026).

A walk on Saturday can’t compensate for an unsustainable job. Personal recovery habits work best alongside realistic workloads, supportive managers and meaningful flexibility.

Leave Some White Space in the Weekend

A busy career can turn weekends into overflow space for everything that didn’t fit into Monday to Friday.

There are household jobs to finish, people to see, children’s activities to organise and errands to run. Filling every remaining hour may seem efficient, but it leaves little opportunity to change pace.

Try leaving one part of the weekend deliberately unplanned. It could be Saturday morning, an hour after lunch or a quiet Sunday evening.

Use the time however you need. Go outside if the weather cooperates. Read. Walk. Sit in the garden. See a friend. Do very little.

Not every hour away from work needs to be productive.

Conclusion

For women pursuing careers in the UK, protecting time away from work isn’t a rejection of ambition. It can be part of making that ambition sustainable.

A clear end to the working week, fewer unnecessary work intrusions, enjoyable movement and simple time outdoors can all help create greater separation between professional and personal life.

Those habits can’t replace supportive employers, manageable workloads or genuine flexibility. Nor should women be expected to solve structural workplace pressures through better self-care.

They can, however, help make the weekend feel like time that belongs to you rather than an extension of the working week. A fulfilling career should leave room for a fulfilling life outside it.

References

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2025). Health and wellbeing at work 2025.

Department of Health and Social Care. (2026). UK Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines. GOV.UK.

Houlden, V., Weich, S., Porto de Albuquerque, J., Jarvis, S., & Rees, K. (2018). The relationship between green space and the mental well-being of adults: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 13(9), e0203000. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203000

Kinnunen, U., & Mäkikangas, A. (2023). Longitudinal profiles of recovery-enhancing processes: Job-related antecedents and well-being outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(7), 5382. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph2007538