we've all been there you clock out the computer shuts down but your mind remains firmly lodged in the office all you can think about are your emails all of your unfinished tasks but what if there is a way to hit a mental off switch and actually leave work at work so today I want to talk a little bit about the windown routine basically a simple set of practices designed to ease you from productivity and get you into a land of relaxation so the first thing I like to do is to establish a transition routine so I like to create a physical separation between work and personal life so leaving your workspace whether it's a home office whether it's your workplace or even it just can be a corner in your home can do wonders for you and sometimes a 10-minute walk a quick rundown of chores or even just changing your outfit into something more comtable can create this sense of separation between work and your evening routine another thing I feel is very helpful is to switch the focus mode on my phone after I finish work so this helps me resist the urge to check work emails or answer late night calls or worry about my projects once I log off from my computer these boundaries are so easy to set you can create your work mode on your phone as well as your leisure mode and all the apps and notifications will change accordingly once you switch back to these modes I think that your off duty time is sacred and respecting that boundary for me is the key to a true unwind routine also if your work is usually intellectual and creative Switching gears may actually help you get a lot of things done the human brain thrives on variety when we engage in diverse activities we stimulate different parts of our brains as well well so when you switch gears between activities massively you allow parts of your brain to rest and other parts to become active so whenever I finish work I like to do this my work primarily involves reading and writing so when I stop working in the late afternoon I like to engage in basically mindless chores so cleaning taking the dog for a walk driving to fetch my sun from daycare or listening to music these activities do not stimulate the same parts of my brain and they help me start the unwinding process before I switch off my task mode however I like to take advantage of those last remnants of brain power to Take 5 to 10 minutes to review my tdo list this allows me to prioritize for Success because it makes me reassess my tasks for the following day I identify the most important ones and schedule them first and this ensures that I tackle the high impact items while my energy is at its peak which in my case is in the morning if in your case you feel like your energy is as its peak in the afternoon then you should switch this around to make sure that your high impact tasks are scheduled for the afternoon and your low impact tasks are scheduled for the morning secondly I like to see whether any of my tasks can be delegated to someone else a team member or a family member if it's a home related task sometimes offloading non-essential items frees up your time and mental space for those high impact items that we've just mentioned thirdly I schedule buffer time as I'm re-evaluating my list I make sure that I'm padding my schedule with buffer time between tasks to account for any unexpected events and also avoid last minute scrambling then I have to move my unfinished business almost every day some of my tasks do not get completed and I like to make sure that once the day ends instead of just piling them in my task inbox I'm actually scheduling them for a time that makes sense it may be not tomorrow it may be next week but I'm ensuring that I'm carving out time and space to tackle those tasks if you're using ACU flow you can actually integrate this by having a daily shutdown routine the daily shutdown has two stages first of all you do a today review and then a tomorrow review with today's review you basically look into the tasks that you completed today you check your progress you analyze how you spend your time and then you wrap up your day with your mind at ease this means that you basically plan your next day taking into account what you did today looking at all of your tasks you decide what are your most high impact tasks and you select one and you can actually do this and set a daily goal and that will pop up in your aif flow to-do list you can then visit your stats to review how you spend your time and then you build your next week's plan differently take a moment to ask yourself where should most of your time go what your goals are and which activities you should delegate or cut besides this quick unwind shutdown routine I like to do the same thing at the end of the week so not only do I like to do this review at the end of every single workday but I also like to reach Friday and actually look back at my week and understand how can I improve I review what I've accomplished and then I set new goals for the following week I make sure that it also adjust is needed so if I find certain activities that are taking up too much time and I could definitely have some incremental efficiency gains if I do things differently that's what I try to adjust for the following week when I incorporate these strategies into my routine I can make the most out of my time after work and I ensure a balance between productivity relaxation and well-being the calendar and task manager youve seen on the screen is ACU flow Our Kind sponsor for today's video here I'm using the daily planning ritual in AOW to get a glance at what my day will look like the ritual starts by reviewing the tasks from the previous day before moving on to the new ones this before and after approach is incredibly helpful for identifying any loose threads you need to address today on the left side bar you can see the different projects and the time allocated for all tasks according to each project you also have a list of events that may have been created in aif flow or imported from other calendars so you know exactly what will happen throughout your day next you have your inbox a pain with all pending tasks think of this inbox as a brain dump the idea is to review it and decide whether to add any tasks to your today view which is the third section on the screen your today view will include both General to-dos like things you need to accomplish that day and scheduled tasks colorcoded by project these include individual tasks as well as slots so slots are one of my favorite features in ACU flow they're essentially Windows assigned to a project that you can fill in with individual tasks in the last section you have your calendar for today and you can click and drag tasks from other sections into this pane allowing you to calendar Block events tasks and Slots so you know exactly what you should be doing at any given time successful entrepreneurs and professionals swear by this productivity method as it provides a bird's eye view of everything you need to do and it also ensures you're dedicating the necessary time to each task and project ACU flow streamlines the counter blocking process by integrating tasks from Project managers email notion and other apps into one place for example if you organize your project in notion you can effortlessly import all of your tasks into ACU flow and then drop them into your calendar so to get started click the link in the description box below to sign up for akif flow today [Music]