“Don’t live to work. Work to live” is a mantra a lot of us hear, but in the science-fiction TV series “Severance,” it’s a reality employees agree to live by.

On the Apple TV+ series that recently concluded its second season, work/life balance is taken to new extremes as people agree to have their brains surgically altered to forget what they did and who they are at the office.

Although the severance procedure is marketed as a way to achieve ideal work/life balance, if you watch the show long enough, you see the sacrifices this memory split takes on workers’ bodies and minds.

As drastic as that seems, some people’s work/life balance is so bad that they claim they’d consider being “severed,” if it were possible.

In an unscientific survey of 210 people by human resources publication People Managing People, a majority of participants ― 68% ― said they would get “severed” for the right salary. For most people, it would take more than half a million to get their body altered for work, but 8.6% said it would only take up to $200,000 for them to consent for such a surgery. While the opt-in survey isn’t exactly statistically sound, it may be a sign that our work/life balance could use some help.

“People are stressed about their finances and resent how much work stress takes over their life, especially when they have little job security and don’t know whether or not they’ll ever be able to afford to buy a house or live without roommates,” said Lauren Appio, a psychologist and executive coach.

Stress often comes from a lack of autonomy over our how we get our jobs done. In a 2016 study of more than 2,000 people published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers found that the power most people wanted was simply the ability to have more control over how their workdays went.

“We might be able to tolerate some work stress and not yearn for an ‘innie’ to take it on for us if we got paid well for doing work that was sustainable, meaningful and secure,” Appio suggested. (On the show, an “innie” is your work counterpart who remembers no family and sees no light of day, while an “outie” is supposed to enjoy downtime outside of the office, free of work worries.)

Sometimes, the inner zen between your “innie” and “outie” mindsets can only be achieved by leaving a toxic job that mistreats you and underpays you. But in the meantime, there are strategies for keeping your work and personal selves at peace with one another.

Tips On How To Achieve Better Work/Life Balance Without Getting ‘Severed’

It is possible to go to “outie” mode without undergoing a permanent medical procedure that threatens your life and loved ones, as the “innies” on “Severance” endure. Here’s how:

Use some ritual or routine to mark the end of the day.

In “Severance,” Lumon’s work elevator starts the transition between “innies” and “outies.” As Mark (Adam Scott) climbs the floors, his eyes flutter, and when the doors ding open, the microchip logs on and Mark is now his “innie,” a more self-assured version of himself who, at first, sincerely believes “the work is mysterious and important.”

But you can separate your work and personal life in a much healthier ritual than how Lumon does it. “Close your laptop, read a book on the train, put on some comfy pants, do some skin care, any comforting or enjoyable thing you can look forward to,” Appio suggested.

For Avery Morgan, chief human resources officer at essay writing service EduBirdie, her separation ritual has two parts: “First, to enter the ‘elevator,’ I let go of any work FOMO [fear of missing out]. I check what I’ve accomplished, plan for tomorrow and close all my work tabs. It’s my way of saying, ‘I’m done for today.’”

“Then comes the transformation. When I’m working from home, I always change out of my work clothes, then either go for a short walk or, if the weather’s not great, dive into a fiction book — something totally unrelated to work,” Morgan continued. “It beats mindless scrolling and helps my brain switch off. I also take a moment to water my plants ― it’s oddly satisfying.”

Morgan said this 20-minute transition period of avoiding phone calls and to-dos is key for her to enjoy her downtime. “I avoid things like cooking or heading straight to the gym. The goal is a peaceful transition before you leave the ’elevator ’and dive back into the world,” she said.

Create technological barriers that limit how much “innies” can contact “outies.”

The notification pings from your phone are preventing you from being able to fully enjoy your “outie” mode. You can use your phone’s built-in tools to limit how much you see of work during off-hours. Both Android and iOS have a Focus Mode feature that helps to minimize distractions by pausing notifications.

And you can also give yourself a set time that you will stop looking at work.

“When possible, have a hard stop to the work day and stop checking emails, Slack or other work messages after that time,” Appio suggested. “Put an out-of-office responder up overnight if you need to, which lets people know that you will respond to any messages at the start of the next work day.”

Don’t blame yourself if work creeps into your personal life.

Even if you do all you can, inevitably work worries can seep into your fun leisure time. That’s normal. Even after work is over, “you may still have intrusive thoughts about upcoming meetings and deadlines, or cringe when you remember difficult interactions with colleagues or times where you feel like you messed up,” Appio said.

Any time these thoughts pop up, validate why you might be thinking about that meeting hours later. “That might sound like, ‘I really wish I handled that differently, and I can face the feedback I got about it.’ Or: ‘It’s reasonable to be stressed about the meeting next week, and I’m confident that I’ll be able to face whatever happens in it,’” Appio said.

Being kind to yourself is not just a way to let go of your work worries, it helps you actually enjoy your free time so that you can recharge and avoid burnout.

“Accepting your feelings and reminding yourself of your capacity to get through it can help you put off your worries a bit and enjoy your downtime,” Appio said.

The horror of each severed worker is that “innies” get no time to relax or enjoy sleep, and are forced to work back-to-back shifts indefinitely. Lumon managers are trying their best to get “innies” to forget their human needs, but at least, in the real world, we still have the free will to decide how much we let work dictate our moods. Let’s use it.