MM#42--Shutdown Complete

Hello I’m David and welcome back to another MOJO Minute

Last time, we talked about AM and PM bookends and how they are important to put before and after our day begins and ends to help us have a flourishing day.

So to continue the theme of creating a flourishing day 

And month

And year.

Lets explore our PM bookend more in depth

Specifically the end of our workday.

So the first and most important question we can ask ourselves is

Wait for it.

You DO have an END to the workday, right?

*laughing*

No seriously!

Remember:  its Uber important to disconnect from work at the end of the day for our mental health and for those arounds us.

If not....study after study says we will perform less and less to our potential and we will eventually BURN OUT.

Guarantee it.

So one of the best tactics and tricks, I have discovered to ensure I stop my work at the end of the day 

and devout my remaining energy, time and presence to my friends and family comes from Cal Newport’s incredible book, Deep Work!

(If you havent read it Check out the Academy review for those cliff notes and key ideas)

Lets go to the book

“At the end of the workday, shut down your consideration of work issues until the next morning —no after-dinner e-mail check, no mental replays of conversations, and no scheming about how you’ll handle an upcoming challenge; shut down work thinking completely. If you need more time, then extend your workday, but once you shut down, your mind must be left free.”

Ahhh..when i read this paragraph for the first time.   

I really stopped and pondered it.

What jumped out to me was this “shut down your consideration of work until next morning”

The consideration of work.

Danggggg....Thats an important point.

How often do you fail because we are still considering many things when work has stopped for the day?

How often do we consider our work when we are not at work?

How often does our work completely take over our thinking when not at work?  

I know for me for a long time, that was the case.

Cal goes on in his book.

“When you work, work hard.   When you are done, be done!”

I love that little mantra.  Lol

Then Cal finalizes his shutting down from work with this little ritual that he shares in the book.

He makes one final check of email to ensure he’s handled anything thats urgent, looks over what was left undone, 

takes a gander at his next day’s schedule coming up, then as he turns off his computer for the night, he says to himself, “Shut-down complete”

How cool is that?

I love that little ritual.

I shared this nugget with a friend and she said, you should adopt it and then add your own little twist to it like “Houston, we are shutting down” as close the lid on my work computer.

Ya know the old call sign from the astronauts in space to mission control in Houston, Texas.

He he he.

So how about you?

Do you rehash work conversations in your head?   

Is your family and friends time being monopolized by work duties happening in your head?

The Main point is and science confirms for us, we need to end our business work day and devout our time to our family and friends.   Not continue to work while trying to engage our family and friends.  

They need our attention.  Our focus and our time.  

Lets be present to them.

So in todays MOJO minute, Lets give our family and friends our full selves.   And not worrying about work while with them.  

And perhaps you can have fun and steal the mantra from Cal when shutting down from your work day

Saying “Shutdown complete”

Or if you want to steal from me and my friend saying “Houston, we are shutting down” in your best astronaut voice by all means steal.  Lol

By shutting down completely we allow our big and beautiful minds to rest, recover and recharge to come back the next day refreshed.  

...and with that.

Let me say in my best astronaut voice, while closing my computer,  “Houston, we are shutting down.  3-2-1.  Out.”