I want to help you not just survive, but THRIVE in these uncertain times. Here is your daily dose of inspiration – because if we set our compass right, we can sail through this!
“Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end…” John Lennon
Tip # 26: Create a ‘Closing Ritual’ for the work day
You can call it a ‘Closing Ritual’ or an ‘End of Day Routine’ or simply crafting a great habit for how you wrap up the work day. Whatever you call it, it is a powerful practice to have in place, especially in uncertain times where a sense of being in control and on track can be so important.
If you happen to be working from home, or if you find that your work is eating into your evenings, this becomes even more impactful to try!
A closing ritual should celebrate what you have accomplished today, take note of what was not completed or things you can learn from, use these pieces of insight to inform your next steps, and tidy your workspace.
The details of your Closing Ritual will be specific to you, but here are some key elements you might like to include:
Make a list of what you got done and congratulate yourself:
It is so easy to glide from the end of one task straight into the next as the day rolls on. Use this time to see all the things you achieved today. Take time to feel pride, satisfaction and gratitude. This helps boost happy brain chemistry and contributes to an internal story of yourself being a productive, capable, successful person. This belief will, in turn, help motivate tomorrow’s successes as well.
Make a list of what you didn’t get done, or mistakes to learn from:
This should not be done in a cruel way. With kindness, make note of these things so that you might learn and grow from them – also so that you can use them to inform planning for the future. If you repeatedly have many tasks incomplete, you may need to adjust your idea of what can be achieved in a day and prioritise the things that are most important, or reduce distractions. If you see the same mistakes repeated, you will see clearly what changes are necessary or what support you might need.
Plan your next steps:
Take a moment to plan tomorrow. It is much easier to be productive if you already know what tasks you need to prioritise, then you can begin work by diving straight into your most potent activity. You can also plan to avoid the pitfalls you identified in the day that has just ended.
Clean your workspace:
Just like a computer starts to slow down if all it’s applications are left open all the time, benefiting enormously from being shut down and rebooted, we humans work much more effectively if we ‘shut down and reboot’ at the end of the day. Tidying your space and filing things away sets you up to start tomorrow’s work feeling fresh and on top of things. It also gives a powerful signal to your mind that it can release for now. Tidying our workspace declutters more than our desk. It declutters our mind and builds a sense that everything is in order and you are in control.
Recommended Reading:
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
The latest groundbreaking tome from Tim Ferriss, the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek.
From the author: “For the last two years, I’ve interviewed nearly two hundred world-class performers for my podcast,The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super celebs (Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, surfing, etc.) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists. For most of my guests, it’s the first time they’ve agreed to a two-to-three-hour interview, and the show is on the cusp of passing 100 million downloads.”
