Do you have a shutdown ritual when you stop work for the day and plan for the next day? In this post in the “Working through the Productivity Field Guide” series, we will discuss the benefits of a shutdown ritual and when and how to do it.
The Benefits of a Shutdown Ritual
There are many benefits to having a shutdown ritual.
• It ends the workday. Some people have a hard time ending their workday. They don’t want to stop when they get “in the groove” of working. David Sparks was one of those people. He used to feel like he wanted to keep working, so he would work until 11 at night and then collapse into bed. Then, the next day, when he got up, he had no plan for what he would do that day.
• It improves focus and productivity the next day. As part of a shutdown ritual, you plan for the next day, reducing stress and anxiety. You don’t have to worry about what you’re going to be doing tomorrow or what your plan is going to be because you’ve already made it. You can go to bed and sleep well.
When you begin your work the next day, you know what to focus on. You can jump right into your plan for the day.
The Elements of a Shutdown Ritual
In the Productivity Field Guide, David Sparks describes the elements of his shutdown routine. The first couple of activities are optional to him, and not everyone will need or want to include them in their shutdown ritual.
• Communications audit. As part of his shutdown routine, he reviews his substantial email and tries to complete as much as possible in a set period.
• Systems maintenance. If he receives any paperwork that day, he scans and files it. He also goes through his action folder, where he sends items that need further action.
The following three elements of a shutdown routine are elements that everyone can use:
• Task review. He looks at his task manager to see what tasks he has designated for the next day and notes any tasks not completed that day. At this point, he starts formulating a list of tasks for the next day.
• Project audit. He also does a project audit. He looks at the projects he’s working on that week and sees if he’s progressing. If there’s one that he’s put off for a few days, he considers scheduling time the next day to work on it.
• Hyper-schedule the next day. He drafts a schedule for the next day based on his task review and project audit. Then, he sets up time blocks for each activity he wants to accomplish that day. For more information about Hyper-scheduling, see my post “Part 7 – Hyper-Scheduling to Make Progress on Your Arete.”
Questions to Ask Yourself After Hyper-scheduling Your Day
After completing his calendaring, he has three final questions that he asks himself:
• Do you have any appointments tomorrow? If so, have you set aside time for travel and pre- and post-meeting planning and capture? If not, do so right now. You might also want to set aside time to prepare before the meeting and capture the results afterward.
• Were you realistic about the tasks you’ve picked for the day? Are your time estimates sufficiently long to do the work? We humans suck at estimating how long work will take us to complete. Often, the time estimates aren’t realistic. So perhaps you need to add some time to one or two of the tasks you’ve listed.
• What parts of your Arete “best version of yourself” will improve tomorrow? “If you’ve booked yourself on unimportant nonsense, start over.” David Sparks, Productivity Field Guide.
The whole point of this process and the overall process is to increase or make progress in each of your roles on your Arete statements. Review your plans to ensure you’re working on the important things.
Look at each time block and ask, “What role and Arete statement does this come under?” If you have something listed that doesn’t fit under a role, do you need to be doing it?
• Have you overbooked yourself? Have you planned 15 hours of work for what really should be an eight-hour workday? If so, you must cut some things out and move them to another day.
A Shutdown Ritual is a Hard Habit to Start and Maintain
Some people have difficulty doing a shutdown routine. David Sparks says that it was the most problematic habit for him to get into. He wanted to keep working, and he did so until exhausted, and then he wasn’t prepared for the next day. Other people share that same issue.
It was so difficult for him that he tried several ways to force himself to do a shutdown routine. At one point, he had an automation that shut down all of his apps at four o’clock in the afternoon with a reminder to himself on the screen that it was time to do his shutdown ritual. Now he has an alarm go off every day on his watch. When that alarm goes off, he knows it’s time to stop.
He’s been consistently following his shutdown ritual, and it’s been working for him. But he’s always afraid he’ll break the habit, so he is always cautious about following through with a shutdown routine.
I Don’t Use An Involved Shutdown Ritual
I don’t do a multi-step formal shutdown ritual like David Sparks does. My schedule isn’t that complex and involved. I don’t feel like I need one.
I don’t need to do a comms check each day because I don’t get that many emails or messages, and I can keep up with them during the day. I do my systems maintenance tasks on Sunday as a part of my weekly review and planning.
My shutdown routine is very simple. When it’s time to quit, I finish whatever I’m doing and then make dinner.
I’m the cook in my family, so I need to shut down every day between 4 and 4:30, and it’s a habit that I’ve gotten into. I don’t need a ritual to stop work. If I don’t stop, we don’t eat, so that’s a strong motivation for keeping my shutdown routine.
I Do My Best Planning in the Morning, Not the Afternoon Before
Why does David Sparks do planning the day before instead of the morning? He likes to wake up with the plan he has already made. He feels like he’s more realistic about what he could get done the next day in the afternoon when he’s tired. In the morning, he tends to overestimate what he can do.
So, for him, it’s better to plan the day before. Also, he can walk away from work and sleep well. He has less stress and less anxiety when he makes his daily plan the day before.
However, I do my best daily planning in the morning. The last thing I want to do in the late afternoon is plan the next day. I’m brain-dead, and I want to rush through it.
I don’t want to do that. I want to make a thoughtful daily plan; the best time for me to do so is in the morning.
I also prefer to plan in the morning because my planning and execution are done together. When I move directly from making the plan to implementing it, I feel less resistance.
I already have a morning startup ritual in the form of my morning routine. See my post, How to Jump-Start Your Day by Setting Up A Morning Routine With Apps, Widgets, and Shortcuts on Your iPad. Every morning, I review my task manager and calendar.
I journal in the Day One app. I’ve included several prompts in my journaling template to support my roles-based system and daily planning habit. I ask:
• What are my three main tasks today?
• What is my #1 priority today?
• What is my plan for today?
I don’t have to establish an entirely new habit. Attaching my daily planning to the pre-existing habit of my morning routine makes it much more likely that I’ll do my daily planning.
Some people in the Productivity Field Guide webinars talked about their resistance in the morning to follow the plan they made the day before. David responded that they had that resistance because “afternoon me,” who made the plan, was not the same person as “morning me,” who now had to follow it.
I avoid that resistance by making the plan and moving directly to implementing it. That works better for me.
You need to do whatever works best for you, and feel free to modify it to fit you. If you need a shutdown ritual in the afternoon, come up with one that fits you. Or, do your planning in the morning like I do. Either way is acceptable.
Find the Ritual That Works Best for You
Establishing a shutdown ritual can be a game-changer for your productivity and well-being. By consciously ending your workday and planning for the next, you create a boundary between work and personal life and set yourself up for success the following day.
Whether you opt for a multi-step formal ritual like David Sparks or a simpler approach like myself, the key is finding what works best for you. Whether it’s in the afternoon or the morning, the important thing is to ensure that your routine supports your productivity and mental clarity.
So, embrace experimentation, find your rhythm, and let your shutdown ritual become a cornerstone of your daily routine.