In Praise of Workday Closeout Routines
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you find yourself spinning on work after hours, waking up in a cold sweat thinking about something that you didn’t get done yesterday, or never feeling like you unplug from work... you may benefit from a workday close-out process.
Kim Ehrman here, admitting that I’m someone who thinks about work after hours.
But I like to think about the good parts — the puzzles I haven’t yet solved, what I’ve been learning lately, and how I can better equip those around me. I recently found that I was thinking about the less good parts of work after hours — the next thing on the to-do list, replaying a conversation too many times, and just feeling unsettled and unrested.
So, I harkened back to a lesson from early in covid work-from-home days: spending a few minutes at the end of the workday to close out work and transition into non-work time.
I tried it, and when I woke up the next day thinking about a fun work puzzle (rather than an un-fun one), I was like YES!
(I’m not advocating for waking up thinking about work... If this isn’t you, you’re ahead of me on the journey of balancing work and life well.)
Workday Closeout Overview
Here’s what I do to close out the day. I set a calendar reminder near when I expect to close my computer and shift it around each workday as needed. It includes three things, which take about five minutes:
Review completed items
Set goals for tomorrow
Note three points of gratitude
The point is to clear my mind of the work items that are spinning, and to move on to the next part of my day. This could be a dog walk, heating up dinner, or running errands. But each activity is a bit more peaceful when I’ve taken my mind from work mode to life mode.
Let’s get into each of these steps.
Review Completed Items
Warning: this is where things get nerdy. If you’re just looking for a quick, daily fix, skip down a few paragraphs.
I use an annual planner that I created blending what worked for me from Getting Things Done, Dr. Sahar Yousef and Lucas Miller’s Productivity and Performance course from Section, and Sara Lobkovich’s teaching on Objectives and Key Results, also found through Section.
Using the planner’s prompts, I set:
Up to four foundational values I want to work in over the next year
Quarterly subject areas that work make an impact on one or multiple of my foundational values
Monthly and weekly focus areas
Each week (typically on Friday afternoons), I review my progress against what I intended, and I set goals for the next week.
So, in my workday closeout sessions, I pull up my weekly goals and do a quick scan for whether I’m accomplishing the things I’m intending. If yes, great. That gets a fist pump and a smile. If not, I have the opportunity to redirect my schedule and efforts tomorrow, rather than wait for the end of the week to realize I didn’t focus on the things that mattered to me.
Back to the quick, daily fix.
No pressure to set weekly goals that have cascaded from your vision for the year. In the workday closeout, simply take a few moments and think through what you accomplished today. Assess how you feel about that, and if there’s anything you want to do differently tomorrow.
The goal of reviewing completed items is to convince yourself that you processed and understand today well enough that your brain doesn’t need to spin on it all night.
Set Goals for Tomorrow
With my weekly goals still up, I pull up my calendar for the next day. I think through what I need to do to be a productive leader or participant of meetings, often scheduling preparation or processing time.
I identify deliverables or tasks I want to make real progress on, and I schedule 60- to 90-minute focus times to work on these, with very specific goals for the time. So you’ll see “Reach out to Julia to make a plan on walking through the new web order flow” and “Incorporate task group feedback into the strategic roadmap” on my calendar if you’re looking at a given Tuesday.
(I literally set a kitchen timer during many of these focused productivity sessions – simply knowing I’m on the clock helps me buckle down and get things done!)
Becky Kane with Todoist shares much more thorough thoughts on workday shutdown rituals. One of her recommendations is teeing up your Most Important Task for the day to accomplish first the next morning. I don’t follow this advice (yet!), but it seems like it could be really helpful.
The goal of setting goals for tomorrow is to convince yourself that you have a clear enough plan for tomorrow that your mind is at ease.
Note Three Points of Gratitude
My favorite part of this workday closeout routine is practicing gratitude! I’m old-fashioned and prefer to write down thoughts in a gratitude journal (like this one).
Write yourself an email, scribble on a Post-It note, whatever works for you. Just take a few moments to note what you’re grateful for. These can be people (bonus points for writing them a quick note to tell them you’re grateful for them!), learning opportunities, triumphant moments, even just making it through the harder parts of your day.
I find that practicing gratitude at the end of the workday lifts my spirits, no matter how tough the day was. That, plus a few deep breaths, and I’m ready to put work behind me and move on to the next thing.
Ultimately, the goal of noting three points of gratitude is to frame the day in light of positives to take from it. This doesn’t mean discounting the hard parts, but putting them in a larger context can help bring perspective.
Closing Thoughts
We’re not looking for 100% success here. I definitely forget to do my closeout routine some days – recent examples include running out the door for a haircut after my last meeting, or simply getting caught up in “just one more thing” and forgetting that I dismissed my closeout reminder.
Partial success is okay. The goal is a trajectory of processing work well, learning from experience, and being grateful for the journey.
I hope this gives you some thoughts for how you might craft a workday closeout routine that fits your needs!
