Aibu to find it tricky to leave my mental load at the office door?

[MrsHookey]

I get distracted by my mental load and find it much more difficult to succeed with focus and my career since having children. My career seems to have regressed. Is this a wider phenomenon affecting other people? What do you do to contain it? Just to say maybe it's worse for me these days too as I'm a single parent with a fully time job and one child who has special needs. I've another child being assessed for ADD too. Anyone got any tips?

Tips in terms of managing mental load that is...

I write literally everything down!

Any little thoughts/jobs I need to do/details of who I need to contact etc all written down in a book I can refer to any time.

Not saying it'll clear your mind completely, but I feel more relaxed 'letting it go' knowing that I won't forget because it's there in black and white.

I found it useful to have a point where I moved from being "mum" to being "employee". I managed this by walking to work, so by the time I was at work, I'd managed to file the home stuff away, and vice versa on the way back. Even on days when I drove to work I'd walk round the block for 5 minutes. I think you need the transition time or you move from one to the other with things still crowding my head.

However tempting it was, I didn't do anything child related at work unless nursery/school rang with something urgent.

I was too tired to think about career progression - but actually that's ok. There's nothing wrong with "treading water" for a few years.
When my youngest DC got to about 7/8 I found I got my ambition back and have progressed career wise since then.

I write down things as well. I usually have 1 hour (or more) of work to do in the evening anyway, and I can check my phone if I feel like it.

I am usually busy enough the rest of my "free" time not to be too bothered with work thoughts. I don't find switching off that hard.

Could you have ADHD too?

Very probably!