Work "Wind Down" Routine

Work “Wind Down” Routine

I found that when working remotely during the pandemic the lines between work and home become blurry and you find it difficult to separate personal life from work-life.

I’m a big believer in [[Work-Like Harmony]] (as opposed to [[Work-Life Balance]])

What I found useful for myself and my team is a “winding down” routine where each team member, at the end of his day, writes a summary of today’s achievements, things that slowed them down and an optional personal message or a “high five” to another team member. This routines allows the different members to stay in sync with whats going on and what otehr people are working on and allows each member to “mark” their day as done.

The thinking behind this:

Acknowledge its hard to let go

Difficulities come and go at work, but working from they can easily become magnified.

Today I got stuck down the rabbithole of trying to upgrade a library 😞 Acknowledge a difficulity and make a concious decision to let it go.

Say proper goodbye

Even if not directly, writing this message on the end of the day is like saying “I’m off for the day”. Interntionally closing your work day helps you switch off work mode, and reminds your team to sign off too.

Reflect on things that went well

There’s always more tasks coming in, juggling between different features, bugs, PR reviews can be overhelming. Reflecting on 3 things that went well helps end the day on a high note.

References

https://medium.com/personal-growth/this-evening-routine-will-maximize-your-focus-10f7662c582 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2764380