How To Create Startup and Shutdown Rituals
Many of us are working from home these days. Even if we don’t work from home all the time, we are accessible via our phones and laptops 24 hours a day. How do we stop this? I won’t go all into boundaries. If you have a boss or clients that cross boundaries you put in place, that’s a different topic.
Today I’m taking about our own boundaries for work. Many time I feel the burden of stress and realize I’ve done this to myself. In Michael Hyatt’s book, Free to Focus, he discusses the concept of a workday startup ritual and a workday shutdown ritual. All of us live different lives. We are in different seasons. I highly recommend you read his book, but today I want to share with you how this looks for me, in my current season, and I hope it will be helpful to you!
What is a workday startup ritual? This is something you do each day to mark the beginning of your workday. What are the things you need to do to get you started on the right foot?
I have a bad habit of checking email on my phone early in the morning. STOP! (I was yelling at myself.) This is not a good habit. On the days when I am being my best self I don’t do that. I start my day with coffee and prayer and then when I’m ready to sit down and start with work I check my email. Otherwise I have all of these tasks and conversations swirling in my head when I’m getting my Kindergartener ready for school and out the door.
You will need to create the list of what works for you. Here is what I do for my workday startup.
Planner - What needs to be done today? Of course I am first going to check my Full Focus Planner. What are my priorities? I try to make sure I do those things right away.
Email - I check my email and do the quick tasks. This includes deleting junk email, (don’t forget to hit that unsubscribe button!) moving answered emails into folders, and flagging things I need to follow up with.
Work communication - we use a system called Slack to communicate as a team. I check this to see if anything needs to be addressed. (I silence notifications on this app during evenings and weekends.)
The final thing I do is go back to those flagged emails and priority tasks and knock those out right away.
This simple routine signifies the beginning of my work day. I work from home and have a 9th grader doing online school at home. Thankfully I can stop to help him and run up the stairs to switch a load of laundry, but I know that at the beginning of the day my important work tasks are completed or at least have been started and have a plan.
Now for the workday shutdown ritual. This signifies the end of my work day. Now, do I occasionally answer work texts or calls or emails past this time? Sometimes, yes. I work a wonderful, flexible job that does require I take care of some clients at odd times. However, by doing this I signify to myself that if I don’t check email again. It’s ok! It’s rare that something can’t wait until the next morning. Trust me. If someone really needs to get you they will try all the things.
Shutdown Routine:
Email - Have I answered all the important email? My favorite way to end the day is with an empty email inbox. (I have a blog post about that HERE.) Occasionally there will be one or two things hanging out, but I find that if I am doing this ritual daily, it is easy for me to end the day with an empty inbox.
Slack - I check one more time to see if I missed anything.
Planner - What do I need to prioritize for tomorrow?
Your Startup and Shutdown Routines may look very different from mine. I encourage you to find the things that signify the beginning of your work day and the ending. I try to do my shutdown ritual right before I start dinner prep. I have been the mom with the laptop on the counter while cooking dinner more times than I care to admit. I don’t care for that life. I prefer the one with margin. The one where I can focus on chopping the veggies and the random thoughts in this crazy head of mine!
Let me know if you try this! What would you add to your Startup or Shutdown Ritual?