Set get some workplace stress relief. Schedule limited time to check email from home, and designate just one area at home for work-related tasks.

Working at home makes it harder to relax.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you find yourself working away from work, you're not the only one. In fact, a new study published recently in the journal American Sociological Review found that nearly half of U.S. workers are bringing their work home, where work time eats away at the work-play balance and the time we need for family, friends, and leisure time. "When you go home, it allows for the phenomenon of recovery. Not just mental, but physiological," explains motivational speaker Ken Nedd, MD, author of The Time to Be Happy Is Now (QP Press, 2009) and Power Over Stress (QP Press, 2004). "The chemistry of the body will change as you go home and enter a different phase, a phase of relaxation." Denying yourself that recovery time is more than an inconvenience…it puts stress your body. "When there's constant stress on the cells, chemicals will be produced which can be injurious to your health," says Dr. Nedd.

THE DETAILS: Using data from a 2005 survey of 1,800 U.S. workers, a team of Canadian and American researchers found that nearly half of U.S. workers take work home with them, and many of them say it interferes with family, social, or leisure aspects of their lives. Crunching the data, researchers found that people working more than 50 hours a week expressed the most interference with their private lives. Workers who obtained college and postgraduate degrees and made more money were more likely to say work interferes with personal life than people with a high-school degree.

Keep reading to find out how to keep work and home separate.