Want a simple productivity hack to stress less over your to do list and actually disconnect at the end of your work day?
In this WBJM daily episode, I’m giving you my quick and easy daily organizational tool to confidently leave work at work when you’re done for the day and jumpstart the next day.
00:35 Why it’s important to organize your day
02:46 My end of day productivity hack
04:47 How you can use it to confidently leave work at work
Check out the previous episode: The Self Fulfilling Prophecy Preventing You From Changing Your Life
Full Transcript:
Hey there friend! I am so excited today to be talking to you about something that will help you clear your mind and free up your mental capacity so that you can accomplish more tasks faster. Because isn’t that what we’re all after? Accomplishing things better, faster, and an easier way so that we can get what we need to done, cross those things off our to do list, and free up time for other, more important things that we want to be doing.
So today, I want to talk about my end of day ritual that helps you leave work at work, and it also jump starts your next day so that you don’t waste any time when you log on or get started for the new day. Doesn’t that sound awesome?
I get that question a lot because when we shut down and take some time off, or when we actually leave work at work for the day, meaning we don’t think about it at night or in the evening or are not constantly going over kind of what we need to do and shuffling around our priorities when we’re not doing that.
And we actually shut down when we try to get started the next day, it seems to take so much longer, because we did quit thinking about it, because we gave ourselves the room to breathe, and then we feel bad. We feel guilty, right? Because we’re not starting the next day strong. We’re wasting, you know, 30 minutes, an hour, depending on how long it takes you to remember everything that you knew yesterday and that you need to get done and in what order you need to get that done.
And so this little tip, this little trick that I use every single day, I do it every day really helps with that piece, because we don’t want you starting the day with brain fog. We don’t want you starting the day not knowing what to do or what to focus on. And we don’t want you to forget all the things that you learned yesterday when you were in the weeds, when you were working. And so this trick really helps with that.
So without stalling any longer, let’s go ahead and get into this trick. It’s really simple. It doesn’t take more than five minutes when you get really quick and practiced at it. But I take the last five minutes of the workday whether I’m working a full day, whether I’m just working for a few hours, whether it’s Friday afternoon.
I know sometimes you want to get off quickly, but take the five minutes at the end of the day and jot down what you need to do the next day in the order you need to do it. That’s very important because you know everything you learned throughout the day. Maybe some priorities changed. Maybe something new popped up. Maybe something got pushed back.
This is incredibly helpful for taking what you know at the end of the day, just making a quick short list. I do this with a sticky note on my computer. On the desktop, I just have a digital sticky note where I just do the quick list. I have a dedicated sticky note on my computer desktop, and it lists out the things that I need to focus on, and so it’s really quick to do.
You can jot down the activities like one I need to respond to this person or two, I need to work on this specific activity for this client. Whatever the tasks that you need to get done the next day, the next work time you work. Putting those onto that sticky note, onto that dedicated list in the order you mean to do them in is so helpful.
And if you are not a digital person, if you don’t want a digital sticky note, you can do it with a regular sticky note. Or you can do it in your notebook where you track your notes and things from different meetings, wherever makes the most sense for you.
But do this at the end of every day and what you’ll find. What I have found is that it frees up so much mental space. I’m not spending time in the evening constantly thinking about my to do list, constantly thinking about how much I have to get done. And constantly thinking about the order. Or what if something else pops up? Or what if I don’t remember? And so it’s not constantly playing on a loop in my head.
I can actually shut down my thoughts about work, and I can walk away at the end of the day with a clear mind and a clear conscience, knowing that the next day I’m going to start strong and I’m going to start knowing exactly what I need to do. And so it’s done wonders for me, freeing up the stress and anxiety about the workday and about how I’m going to get it all done.
But it’s also given me this fantastic organizational tool so that I start each day knowing exactly what to do. And I start each day with a specific list that I’ve already built.
So I don’t waste time thinking about what do I need to be doing?
Do I need to run through all of my emails?
Do I need to spend time looking through my texts or my instant messages? Or wherever you receive information?
You don’t have to worry about what needs to get done. You already know. So when you open your laptop, when you walk into your office, wherever you go to work, you know exactly where to focus, exactly where to spend your time so that the things get done the next day.
This has been a total game changer for me, and I’m hoping it can do the same for you. So what I would love for you to do if you’re struggling, shutting down and leaving work at work, or if you’re struggling getting started the next day.
I would love for you to give this trick a try. And if it works for you, or if it doesn’t, right? If you have questions or challenges or frustrations with this, then I want to know about it. So feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or TikTok at Wealth Beyond Just Money and let me know. Send me a message and let’s talk about it.
Because this is something that was so beneficial for me and has been beneficial for other people who have given it a try. And if it can help you fix your organization and get you started off stronger and give you more free mental capacity at home or whatever else you want to do outside of work, then that’s exactly what we want here.
So until next time, keep building your wealth beyond just money.