Workday shutdown ritual
A fixed end-of-day routine that closes open loops so work stops
Review every open task and every inbox at a set time, capture anything unresolved into a trusted plan for tomorrow, then say a phrase that marks the day finished. The point is to convince the part of your brain that keeps chewing on unfinished work that it has been handled, so that the evening is genuinely off. Without it, most knowledge workers never fully leave work.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Cal NewportDoes it
Computer science professor · author of Deep Work
Ends every workday with a fixed review of open loops and a spoken phrase marking work finished, so the evening is genuinely off.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript“At the end of your workday, you go through and you close, you use the David Allen term, all the open loops. … And then you have to do some sort of demonstrative ritual at that point to indicate that you did all those checks.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 4 Feb 2022 - David SparksDoes it
Apple productivity writer · MacSparky
Teaches a seven-step shutdown ritual in his Productivity Field Guide, and says none of the system is theoretical: it is what he runs every day. What he wants from that step is being able to disconnect from work completely rather than carry it into the evening.
Source: MacSparky: The Productivity Field Guide - Sahil BloomDoes it
Author · The 5 Types of Wealth
He took the idea from a Cal Newport blog post more than a decade before he used it, and only built the routine in early 2023 when work kept eating into time with his wife and son. Final email check, calendar check, fifteen minutes of prep for the morning, then everything closes.
Source: The Curiosity Chronicle: Power Down Ritual, 18 Healthy Recipes, & More - Dwayne JohnsonDiscusses
Actor and former WWE champion · The Rock
Once the children are in bed he gets a window of about two quiet hours in which, he says, he does most of his thinking and can follow a thought from start to finish, then goes to sleep with some clarity. It is not a formal routine, and he adds, half joking, that tequila helps too.
Source: Men's Health: Dwayne Johnson December 2022 cover interview
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