Hello and welcome to the Todoist channel. My name is Naomi, and in today's video, we're going to talk about a work shutdown ritual. If you -- like me at times -- struggle to really turn off at the end of the workday and actually stop working, then this video is for you. I'm going to start this video in a slightly unusual way and read you a snippet of the article that the video was based on, because my very talented colleague Becky Kane wrote this many moons ago, and I think it still stands true, and I couldn't have written it any better myself. So here we go. My workdays used to go something like this: sit down in front of my computer with a vague idea of what I wanted to get done. Check email, get distracted by all of the new messages in my inbox, end up spending way too much time on urgent but ultimately unimportant tasks. Feel guilty about not making enough progress on my important projects. Continue working late way past the point of optimal productivity because I never felt like I got enough done. Keep thinking about the important tasks I hadn't finished even after I'd left work. Start the next day feeling drained, anxious and guilty about the previous day's lack of productivity. And as you can imagine, I wasn't getting things done, and I finished each workday feeling stressed and discouraged. That's when I discovered the almost magical power of a workday shut down ritual. I think that most of us can resonate with that feeling of spinning your wheels all day, feeling busy. But not necessarily feeling like you got anything done, and then taking that guilt and shame into your evening whenever you're supposed to be recharging. Enter Cal Newport's work shutdown ritual made popular by his bestselling book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. The author, Cal Newport, introduces us to his work shutdown ritual and described it as the following. This ritual should ensure that every incomplete task, goal or project has been reviewed and that for each you have confirmed that either one: you have a plan you trust for its completion, or two: it's captured in a place where it will be revisited at the right time. The nature of work for most of us is the fact that it is never ending. There are always more things that you can do and there are more things you need to get done. So in order to actually switch your brain off from it and allow you to recharge in an evening, it's really important that you set a ritual in place. Here are seven simple steps that are going to help you create your own personalized work shutdown rituals so that you can end your workday right. Step one: Clean up. Now, this one is going to sound way too simple, but trust me, it works. So taking some time at the end of your workday to actually get up and physically start cleaning your desk and your working area can really help you to mentally switch gears toward the end of the workday. Then you can save any folders or documents that you have that you're working on. Close your tabs, close your windows, and then if you have anything that you're still working on that you know you're going to need the next day, you can always save those in the comments of your Todoist task. So you won’t waste any time finding them the next day. Step two: Reflect. It is a mood booster to acknowledge the work that you've done and to simply take a minute to reflect on all of the things that you've accomplished that day. If you're a Todoist user, you're going to be able to see these completed tasks in your activity log. Step three: Confront the things you've been putting off. The procrastination doom loop. We all know it. There is a task that you have some uncomfortable feelings about, maybe don't necessarily want to tackle it, so you delay it. And then the delay brings a sense of guilt that you really should be doing that thing, so you kind of feel more uncomfortable about it and then you delay it some more. At Todoist, our head of Android development, Rasto, ends his day by identifying an uncompleted task that he knows he's been avoiding. And he says if it feels like I intentionally omitted or bypassed a task, I try to split it into two or more smaller tasks so that I'm more inclined to tackle them the next day. So you can break out of that procrastination doom loop by simply taking the task, looking at it head on, breaking it down into something a little bit more manageable, and scheduling it for the next day. Step four: Write out tomorrow's to do list. There are two productivity boosting reasons for why you should be doing this. Number one, it increases your willpower. If you start the next day with a set of tasks that have already been identified and defined and prioritized, then that's a task you don't have to do that morning. So you can simply get started with the actual work and not have to worry so much about the planning. Number two, it helps you stop thinking about work. It's really, really hard to stop thinking about and ruminating on tasks and problems that we're facing in work. Even when we end the work day. Psychologists have even given a name to this phenomenon. It's called the zeigarnik effect. Basically means that your brain has a really hard time letting go of open loops. It's going to keep you thinking about your uncompleted tasks until you've completed them. However, we know that not all tasks can be completed in a day, and so it's really natural to have quite a lot of open loops, and that is going to make it really difficult to kick back and recharge. Luckily, there is a mental shortcut we can take. You can relieve your brain of its duties of thinking about those tasks simply by documenting them. I personally like to time block my next day in Todoist in the calendar view with start times for tasks. Because I feel like then my brain doesn't just know what I need to do, but also when I'm going to do it. And if you want to make a planning even more efficient, then you might want to consider doing a weekly review. If you haven't already seen the video that we have on that, I'll link that in the cards above. Step five Complete your most important task first. Set yourself up for success in the morning by identifying what your one most important task would be. Now this should be a task that feels like if you completed it, your day would already feel impactful and everything else that comes after it would feel a little bit more easy. This is also called eating the frog, which if you have no context for what that means, that is very understandable. It is a weird name. But we have got a video on that one, also, and I will link that in the cards above too. Step six -- and arguably the most important one -- set a time to end your workday and stick to it. Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fit the time that you have allotted to it. So if you give yourself two days, for instance, to clean out a closet or complete a work report, then it is very likely you will take two days to do that. If you give yourself 2 hours to do it, then it is more likely that you will get that work done in less time, maybe even within the 2 hours. You can use Parkinson's law to boost your productivity. So if you set yourself a hard finish of 5:30 p.m., then it is more likely that you're going to get more done in less time. And remember, you need to include your work shutdown ritual within that time. An ending work at a set time is also going to give you more of a chance to relax and recharge, which is a massively important part of long term productivity. And I know, I know it's so easy to set a hard finish and then not abide by it. Trust me, I have struggled with this myself. And if you really struggle with this, having something scheduled can actually be very helpful. Say, for instance, you promised your family that you will always be at the dinner table when dinner is served. That is a hard finish. Or maybe you want to schedule a meeting with friends or a workout after work, something that you know is going to force you to leave your place of work, your office, wherever you are, even at home. You have to leave your laptop. You have to go do this thing because you have made yourself accountable to other people, that you will be there on time. And if you really need to roll in the big guns, then there are some apps that you can download that can help you with this. So they can shut down the apps that you use for work, or you can even get apps that are going to shut down your device for you at a set time. I personally have not gone that far just yet, but I do have a timer that beeps at me every day to tell me that it's time to start my work shutdown ritual. And step seven is to end on a high note. It's really hard to feel good about your work whenever you've had a less than productive day. But there are three things that you can do that can help you feel a little bit more positive whenever you turn the computer off. Number one, forgive yourself. It is entirely human to not get to the bottom of your to do list every day. This is normal. This is normal of the vast majority of people on the planet. So the best thing you can do is set your intentions to be better the next day. But for today, just let it go. Number two, show gratitude. Now this could take a few different forms. You could simply just write it. All of the things that happened in your day that went well, that you're grateful for. Or you could reach out to a colleague and let them know how thankful you are for them or something that they've done. And the bonus point for that one is it’s going to brighten their day too. Number three is to do someone else a favor. You may have something on your list that is very minor, small to you, but important to someone else. And if you can do that for them, then that's going to help you leave your workday feeling a lot happier. So as a reminder, I'm going to pop all seven of those on the screen for you now. Number one, tidy your desk, save everything you're working on, and close all your tabs and windows. Two, review your completed tasks at the end of each day. Three, plan tomorrow's to do list. Four, plan your most important tasks for the next workday. Five, break down the tasks you've been avoiding into smaller, more manageable ones. Six, keep a firm time for ending your work day. Seven, end on a high note. Now, this is not a definitive list. You can mix and match them and add them with other things that you think are going to help you end your work day. But I would encourage you to not dismiss any of them. I would encourage you to give them a go, because often it's the really simple things that we think aren’t going to have much of an effect that actually end up transforming our behaviors and our habits. And please remember that setting these boundaries is essential for your long term happiness and success. And I would love to hear from you. Do you struggle with ending your work day? Do you have a really excellent work shutdown ritual that you want to share with everyone else? Do you have any little tips that could help other people switch off at the end of their workday? It would be so nice to see those in the comments. And as a thank you for being so kind to help each other out, we will be choosing someone who has left a comment and has subscribed to the channel to have a free year of Todoist Pro. And if you find this video helpful, then you might want to consider downloading our Todoist template for a work shutdown ritual. I'm going to leave the link for that template down in the description box below and it’s basically going to give you everything that I've told you today along with any details that you need, and you can download it right into your Todoist so you've got all your tasks ready to go. And that's it! Please give us a thumbs up or a comment or even consider subscribing because all of these things mean so much to the team. Thank you again for watching. We'll see you in the next one. Bye! Rules for Success and a focus -- bla la la la la la la la. Now I'm going to start this video in a slightly unusual right -- over gesturing, gesturing too much. That just sounds weird. Stare into the void.