Compartmentalization

The Importance Of Putting on Pants

What does working in your PJs and breaking a wild horse have in common? It turns out quite a bit. My son Joseph recently took on the ambitious project of breaking a wild mustang. One thing he learned while pouring over YouTube videos was that horses always should be trained in a location different from where they live. Joseph was concerned about re-catching the horse so he ignored this advice and kept him 24/7 in the corral. As the picture below illustrates, the training did not go well. When he started using the corral exclusively for training, the results were dramatic. After a few weeks, the horse became so calm that even my seven-year-old son could ride him.

April Klooster said, “When you work in your pajamas, you’re fading that line between work and home... getting dressed in ‘real clothes,’ helps you to feel like you’re ‘going to work.’ One study even found that when you dress in business attire, it changes the way you think and relate to people. ”Not everyone can separate the “living” and “work” areas in their homes, but we can all change our clothes and put ourselves in a “work” mindset.