Many of the participants spent much of their evening after work dwelling on what they hadn't gotten done during the day.

But those who wrote down plans for the following day spent noticeably less time thinking about incomplete work in the evening.

Read: Yes, working long days might kill you

"(C)reating plans to resolve incomplete goals increased psychological detachment among employees with traits that chronically inhibit detachment," wrote Smit.

In other words, people who are typically super-stressed about work benefit from writing down their work goals for the next day.

Doing so apparently allows them to bring a conclusion to the current workday and move on to the non-work part of their day.

While many contemporary concerns about work/life balance focus on overbearing bosses who demand their workers be electronically attached to the office at all times, often it is employees themselves who have trouble detaching psychologically from the workplace.

"Sometimes we, ourselves, are the source of work spilling over into our personal lives," Smit told Reuters. "In this case, planning may help put us in a state of mind that better allows us to switch off from work in the evening."

Another expert, Mark Cropley, a professor at the University of Surrey and author of "The Off Switch: Leave work on time, relax your mind, but still get more done," told Reuters that developing a hobby is a good way to get your head out of the office.

"More and more people are finding it difficult to unwind and relax after work," he said. "One of the best ways to detach is to develop and pursue a hobby that focuses the mind."

In previous research, Cropley has written that those who make a point of not working in the evenings are able to approach their work with better focus the next day.