I wrote a post about my startup routine earlier, and would also like to share my shutdown routine. While I use my startup routine to orient myself for the day and get started, I use my shutdown routine to ensure that I capture tasks from my notes taken earlier in the day and that I am able to focus fully on personal projects and my family in the evening. Like my startup routine, I set up my shutdown routine as a daily repeating task in Things, with each of the steps listed below as subtasks. I complete my shutdown routine before heading home from work each day, as well as at the end of the day on weekends, although my shutdown is abbreviated on the weekend since I am not closing out work tasks.

Here is my shutdown routine:

1. Review my calendar – this gives me time to review the current day’s meetings and activities, and to preview the next day’s schedule
2. Set Up Schedule for Next Day – I set up my schedule for the following day, essentially a daily agenda, including the meetings that are already scheduled. For the time between meetings, I indicate either “Work Session” or list a specific project or task I would like to focus on. This schedule goes in Things in the notes field of a project called “Daily Planning – Weekdays.” For those of you familiar with block scheduling, this is similar to that approach.
3. Save Today’s Schedule to DEVONthink – I keep each day’s schedule as a Markdown file in DEVONthink in case I need to look back at a certain day later, or if I want to review my daily schedules as a reflective activity in the future. I use the app PopClip for this, which allows me to simply highlight the text and select DEVONthink from a small popup window. The app then sends the schedule to DEVONthink as a new Markdown file.
4. Journal About My Day – I keep a set of prompts for my weekly journal in another project in Things, again in the notes field. During my weekly review at the end of each week, I copy this over to the journaling app Day One. Having it in Things allows me to quickly add to it throughout the week, both during my shutdown as well as throughout the day, without having to open a separate app.
5. Clean Up Inboxes – I process any paper and digital notes, including flagged notes in DEVONthink (I will address how I take notes in DEVONthink in a future post).
6. Review Things List for Tomorrow’s Tasks – when I review my task list for the next day, I evaluate whether it is realistic and reschedule or drop tasks as needed.
7. Check Email for Time Sensitive Items– this helps me avoid surprises the next morning.
8. Close Out Open Windows / Programs – this ensures that I add any finishes touches to open documents and save them before closing each program. This also provides an opportunity to review any open tabs in my browser, in case I was partway through a task or a bit of research and was interrupted.
9. Pause and Decide What’s Next – I let my mind settle and decide my next action to transition to home and family time. This might be making dinner or picking it up on the way home, running errands, etc. In addition, this is a time to pause and practice a few moments of mindfulness to ensure that I transition to family time ready to be fully present. This pause was inspired by Kourish Dino’s course “Being Productive: Simple Steps to Calm Focus.”
   

My shutdown routine helps me end the day closing open tasks and feeling settled about the following day. While some days are so hectic that I do not get to my shutdown, I usually find time to get it done. In fact, I often schedule it during the last thirty minutes of my work day. When I am able to complete the shutdown, I end the work day feeling settled, knowing that I will be ready to go the next day. If you use a similar strategy, please let me know in the comments or send me a message.