The Workday Startup and Shutdown Routines That Keep Me on Track

I have two daily work routines that keep me on track: my Workday Startup Routine and my Workday Shutdown Routine. The workday shutdown routine I’ve had in my calendar for about three years, inspired by an old Cal Newport routine for ending your day.

Cal Newport’s Shutdown Ritual

• Make sure your master task lists are up to date.
• Read over these lists in their entirety.
• Review your calendar for the next two weeks.
• Review your plan for the week and what you did that day.
• Then say, “schedule shutdown, complete.”

The idea is that doing this daily keeps you on track and helps to prepare you for a true evening or weekend break.

I’m happy to report that it has worked better than I imagined. I’ve basically eliminated stressful work-related thoughts from my evenings and weekends. As you might expect, this has really improved my ability to relax and focus on other things.

— Cal Newport

It works. I have my own version of this, which, I’ll share below, with its companion, the Workday Startup Routine.

Workday Startup Routine

I work at a company that is fully remote and distributed around the world. That means new work and information to process is constantly piling up. Without a routine for getting started in the morning, I can easily become overwhelmed.

Close your eyes and take two or three deep breaths

• If you’ve ever tried a guided mediation, imagine that. I close my eyes, take slow deep breaths in through my nose, and exhale through my mouth like I’m blowing up a balloon.
• When I don’t do this, sitting down in my chair and putting my hands on the keyboard feels a bit like jumping out of a plane. I skydive through the day and land suddenly 8, 10, sometimes even 12 hours later a bit confused about how I got there.
• When I do take this moment to breathe, however, I feel an instant break and reset. It creates a pause that makes me feel like I can plan and get in control of my day.

Plan the day in Akiflow and select three goals

• This is actually a bit of a multi-step process:
  • I review my goals for the week that I might have set Monday morning, the weekend, or the week before.
  • I go through all my tasks for the day on my todo list and select three goals that represent the most important things I want to accomplish.
  • I plan out my day on the calendar, making sure my three goals are being done at a time that is most likely going to see them accomplished. (Usually as early as possible in the day, but not always.)
• I only recently started using Akiflow to time-block my tasks for the day. Note: that’s an affiliate link but before you try out Akiflow you should know that it can be a bit buggy sometimes and that there are cheaper options. I was using Todoist and my Google Calendar to do the same thing. You can also do that on a piece of paper or your daily note in an app like Obsidian.

Review Google Task List

• Occasionally I will get tasked with items in shared Google Docs using the Google Task List system and I like to manually review this in case I’ve been tasked with something and not been aware.
• I also move these tasks to Akiflow and have to sometimes come back to check these off.
• Technically, these should be flowing into Akiflow automatically on creation — but they don’t when their origin is a Google Doc. Did I mention that Akiflow was buggy? 🙂

Up to this point, I’m solidifying my plan for the week and my day in preparation for new information. Here’s where the new information comes in.

Triage GitHub Notifications

• We build software at work so I like to start every morning by checking issues I’m following and any mentions I might have received on them.
• If I was doing more direct software myself, I’d be checking these more regularly throughout the day. But one clean sweep in the morning that gets me back to an empty inbox is just what I need.

Triage Gmail

• It’s email. You know what this is. 🙂
• I like to get to an empty inbox every morning.

Triage P2 Notifications

• P2 is the private, networked, blogging tool we use to manage our work communication.
• It uses WordPress to create networked team and project blogs that combine the best of project management systems, emails, forums, and social networks for work.
• It also has it’s own notification system and in the time between I end my day and start up my day there is always something new I have to read and manage.

At this point, I’m ready to dive into the final item that is most likely to throw a wrench into my plans: opening Slack.

Triage Slack

• Opening Slack can sometimes feel like you suddenly woke up to find yourself somehow concurrently present in dozens of important high school classrooms all at once and every teacher is simultaneously asking you a question you didn’t hear while you were sleeping.
• At least, it did until I started this workday startup routine. At this point, I know what is most important for my day, when I think I can do it, and what’s been happening since I ended my day. I’m prepared.
• My workday routine makes diving into what could be a chaotic maelstrom — if unprepared — something routine.

Workday Shutdown Routine

This is very similar to Cal Newport’s list. In fact, I have this in a checklist in Obsidian that links out to the blog post above to remind me of that.

Close your eyes and take two or three deep breaths

• Just like in the Workday Startup Routine this really helps stop the skydive feeling and gets me ready to close out my day.

Review Google Task List

• Just in case there are any new tasks I was added to during the day.
• I could do this in my startup ritual but …

Zero the Akiflow Inbox

• As part of how I plan my day I like to make sure I have all my new tasks collected in one inbox. I do that in Akiflow.
• Then I wrap my day by making sure I have tasks placed appropriately in my calendar for upcoming days or weeks. (Sometimes breaking things down into sub tasks.)

Review my calendar for the next two weeks

• If I don’t do this I’m guaranteed to be surprised.
• Additionally, I find this creates opportunities for not just avoiding being surprised but being better prepared.

Review my Weekly Note and Daily Notes in Obsidian

• These are essentially the same notes you’d find in a Full Focus Planner.
• I really like the system but much prefer to have everything digital and always with me in my pocket on my iPhone at all times.
• As part of this review I’m also making notes on any wins of the day — often with links back to the work. Another reason why a digital solution is better for me.
• I’m also adding notes on how my day went.

Close Slack

• If I don’t do this I’ll be distracted in the morning.

Shutdown

• Unlike Cal Newport I don’t say, “Shutdown complete.” 🙂 I do however, sometimes exhale loudly, clap my hands, and say, “alright!”
• I don’t need a ritual to remind me that I’ve shutdown, I find the order I do things and the manner in which I do them sets me up for the same result as Cal Newport. I’m ready to disengage.

Do you have any daily rituals or routines that help you manage your day? I’d love to hear them.