A Shutdown Routine

06 Apr, 2026

I came across Tala's blog post are you closing your loops? today and thought it was a good read.

Especially if you're working from home, the work-life boundary can get fuzzy. There's no clear start/stop boundary that comes from walking into the office or walking back into your home, or the commute that can serve as both a mental and physical bridge between the two locations. That can lead to a lot of mental bandwidth energy taken up by work things even when you're not at work.

Cal Newport's idea of a shutdown ritual has been helpful for me in this area. Cal has a pretty detailed routine he does at the end of his workdays to close his loops. He updates his task list, reads over this list again, reviews his calendar for the next two weeks, reviews his weekly plan and then mutters a shutdown phrase to himself.

For me, clearing the mental load and being able to de-compress after work each day is about having a system to keep up with my monthly, weekly and daily tasks—as well as a calendar that tracks anything that's time-bound. I've got monthly, weekly and daily note templates set up in Obsidian to run this organization system.

Each month I list out my work and personal goals for that month. For anything that has a specific date, like deadlines, trips, events, etc., I put those in a bullet journal style monthly calendar and into my Google Calendar.

Each week—typically on Sundays—I check the monthly calendar, review my previous weekly note, and then create my upcoming weekly plan for what needs to get done in the next seven days.

Then each day I create my to-do list in a daily note¹ and check things off as I progress throughout the day. If something comes up during the day, I'll add it to this "productivity system" where it belongs. If I complete task I mark it off, and if I need more time with something I just forward it to the next day or another specific date where I can get it done.

My shutdown routine, to the extent that it exists, is just making sure all the tasks in my daily note have either been completed, forwarded to the next day, or scheduled somewhere else entirely. That's about it.

This system has been complex enough to handle everything I need it to, but also simple enough that I've actually stuck with it.

I'm not sure you're ever going to have a system that removes all that mental fatigue entirely, but this one has helped me stay organized and focused while working, and more calm and relaxed while I'm not.

#blogs #productivity