{"id":630048,"date":"2026-09-20T00:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630048\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T00:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:48:18","slug":"630-rule-review-i-tried-the-viral-stress-management-technique-to-switch-off-after-work-and-it-didnt-go-to-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630048\/","title":{"rendered":"6:30 rule review: I tried the viral stress management technique to switch off after work, and it didn\u2019t go to plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine being able to flip a switch on your worries<\/a>, like in that song from The Book of Mormon: \u201cTurn it off like a light switch \u2013 just go click!\u201d Well, that is precisely what I\u2019ve spent the last week trying to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m terrible at mentally switching off after work<\/a>. So when my editor assigned me to have a crack at the \u201c6.30 challenge\u201d, I was curious, if a bit sceptical.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As a seasoned overthinker, I gave the internet\u2019s latest stress-busting challenge a red-hot crack.\u00a0Tilli Andrew<\/p>\n

The premise seems simple: after 6.30pm, you stop giving unnecessary worries your attention. If you can\u2019t do anything about a problem tonight, it waits until tomorrow. But I soon realised this is bloody hard in practice.<\/p>\n

So, did I actually master the mythical art of switching off? Here are the rules I set to give myself a fighting chance.<\/p>\n

Rule 1: Disrobe immediately<\/p>\n

My 6.30pm deadline happens on the bus home, meaning I needed a physical trigger to tell my brain the workday was done.<\/p>\n

Every night, I got home, showered, and put my pyjamas on immediately. Within five minutes of walking through the front door: outside clothes, be gone!<\/p>\n

Simple as it sounds, it was a surprisingly effective physical cue to shut up shop.<\/p>\n

Rule 2: Limit the information overload<\/p>\n

Instead of stuffing my brain with even more information at the end of a long day,\u00a0I listened to music.<\/p>\n

It honestly felt great to do the dishes while belting out Taylor Swift and Duran Duran instead of listening to a newsy or true crime podcast.<\/p>\n

There is also SO much research showing that listening to even just one song you love can do wonders for your dopamine levels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Adopting a new rescue pup halfway through the challenge certainly didn\u2019t hurt my stress levels.\u00a0Tilli Andrew<\/p>\n

Rule 3: A cap on screen time<\/p>\n

There was no universe in which I was going to ban TikTok and Instagram after 6.30pm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Staying off my phone while eating my dinner was surprisingly relaxing?\u00a0Tilli Andrew<\/p>\n

So I did what any seemingly grown 26-year-old woman would do and compromised.<\/p>\n

For the first time, I put actual limits on both apps: 30 minutes of TikTok and 30 minutes of Instagram a day.<\/p>\n

It was restrictive enough to stop endless scrolling without being unrealistic \u2013 heck, I\u2019m still using the limits now.<\/p>\n

Rule 4: Embrace the brain dump<\/p>\n

I am very familiar with lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and suddenly remembering five urgent things I need to do tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I put my main culprits, TikTok and Instagram, on a strict thirty-minute limit.\u00a0Tilli Andrew<\/p>\n

Now, I write them down in my Notes app, a habit I\u2019d already started, but fully committed to during the Mel Robbins<\/a> 24-hour reset challenge.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Robbins, I also started getting into bed an hour before I actually want to sleep after hearing her recommend a wind-down buffer.<\/p>\n

So, did I actually stop worrying after 6.30pm?<\/p>\n

Drumroll please \u2026 nope.<\/p>\n

Six days later, I was still perfectly capable of worrying at 6.31pm, 8pm, and 10pm. But by the end, I wasn\u2019t sure that mattered \u2013 trying to police every thought sometimes made me even more aware of what was going through my head.<\/p>\n

Six days is also not long. While looking into the challenge, I found many people who tried it said they kept at it consistently for months.<\/p>\n

Having said this, the little habits I introduced DID make my evenings feel noticeably calmer.<\/p>\n

So, unfortunately, for now at least, I\u2019m still going to have the odd worrisome thought beyond 6.30pm. <\/p>\n

And you know what? That\u2019s OK. I\u2019m just not letting it take over the whole evening. Baby steps!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine being able to flip a switch on your worries, like in that song from The Book of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-630048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}