We often treat home and work like rival siblings. One is supposed to be the refuge from the other. Shut the laptop, close the mental tabs, and leave the office behind. The psychological reality is different. Your brain does not commute. It carries patterns across settings, which means the way you handle family life can prime your mind for what you do at work the next day.

A new study led by Yasin Rofcanin, a professor of organisational psychology and HRM at the University of Bath, challenges the idea that home is merely a drain on professional energy. Published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, the research followed 147 dual-earner couples over six weeks and shows that when people take initiative at home—adjusting child care routines, rotating responsibilities, or redesigning family systems—they build confidence and adaptability that spill into the workplace. In psychology terms, they are engaging in “strategic renewal,” and the gains cross domains.

Psychologists call this the work-home resources model. The core claim is simple: When you invest in better structures or support in one life domain, you build personal resources that spill over into the other. Rofcanin’s team found that people who made small but deliberate changes at home reported more “flow” at home, stronger self-efficacy, and then more

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