At the end of each of my working days (and invariably weekends too) I go through a list of my ‘Shutdown Tasks’ – a fixed checklist of things I need to complete before closing down my laptop lid for the evening.

The full set of items is listed here :

[] Check email sent to client
[] Log Invoice
[] Update CV with any new things
[] Clear Mail
[] Plan Tomorrow
[] Shutdown Tabs
[] Kill today’s tmux session(s)
[] Process !WAITING
[] Process @CONTEXTS
[] Process !INBOX
[] Check Focus tasks
[] Check Current
[] Get Now tasks to <= 20 / Focus them
[] Get Focus tasks <= 3
[] VNC to Disco for quick check
[] Read Stoic page for today
[] Write today’s journal entry
[] Pick off any Focus Tasks

In the following sections I’ll break down each item.

[] Check email sent to client

As a remote freelancer I usually send a wrap-up email to my client, especially if they have not been around on say Trello or Basecamp that day.

This is my main priority when ‘shutting down’ and is the most time-intensive of all the items on the checklist.

[] Log Invoice

Just a quick one-line entry in a text file logging who I worked for that day. I process this invoice text file once per week when actually creating the real invoices via Freshbooks.

[] Update CV with any new things

A bit misleading – I don’t actually update my CV every day, but I do maintain a list of any new technologies I’ve worked on that I can look back on if I ever do get around to updating my CV.

[] Clear Mail

Clear out any unread emails in inbox and various folders. I might dip into my inbox throughout the day to check for any urgent issues, but prefer to batch process it all once per day.

[] Plan Tomorrow

Just a quick look at the calendar tomorrow – my scheduled hours are pretty much set in stone, so this is more just a quick reminder of who my client is the following day than rejigging / planning the events for that day.

[] Shutdown Tabs

Half a dozen or so bookmarks that I go through at end of the day, nothing too exciting.

[] Kill today’s tmux session(s)

I setup the required development environment for my client in a tmux session (via tmuxinator) – as I typically have a different client per day it’s a good practise for me to kill the session to prevent too many Rails servers slurping my work machine’s resources.

[] Process !WAITING

The first of my custom GTD type actions – basically checking if I’m waiting on anything and if I can action it.

[] Process @CONTEXTS

I have a context per client – and if there’s anything I need bring up with a client it is logged here – scanning this once per day ensures I’m up to date.

[] Process !INBOX

Process any new notes I’ve created during the working day – filing them into my GTD system or reference.

[] Check Focus tasks

I limit my main task list to 20 items – but I ‘focus’ 3 of them as the highest-priority. Here I check that there are 3 or less in the queue.

[] Check Current

I maintain a list of what book I’m currently reading, what tech videos I’m watching, etc. This is a quick scan to ensure I’ve got things lined up.

[] Get Now tasks to <= 20 / Focus them

A brief scan across my main task list just in case anything has changed in priority / needs ‘focusing’. I typically don’t pick off any tasks at this time, unless they are urgent/quick – I timebox processing my tasks into dedicated hours outside of my core working hours.

[] Get Focus tasks <= 3

After processing my ‘Now’ tasks some might have been ‘focused’ causing my focus list to exceed 3 – if it does I re-jig it, moving the least important ones back into the Now list.

[] VNC to Disco for quick check

I use a headless Mac Mini running Plex to store all my media – I like to do a quick check via VNC every day to check on disk space, new media added, backups, etc.

[] Read Stoic page for today

A habit I’ve had for the last few years is to read an entry from The Daily Stoic book by Ryan Holiday – this is structured into a brief essay for each day of the year and typically only takes a few minutes to read.

[] Write today’s journal entry

Another stoic practise – I write a brief journal entry answering these three questions for the day :

1) What did I do wrong?

2) What did I do (right)?

3) What duty’s left undone?

Typically my answers are just one or two sentences – but it’s become a useful tool for me to determine where I might be going wrong, e.g. if I answer the same to a question for several days in the row I know this is an area I need to address.

[] Pick off any Focus Tasks

If I have time I might have a crack at the Focus tasks on my list – but as mentioned earlier, I usually leave these to my dedicated ‘task time’ as I’m usually keen after a long day’s work to close my laptop lid at this point.

…and that’s it.

Do I think repeating these steps every day is worth it?

Sure! They only take around 30m on average and gives me enough peace of mind so I can mentally shut-off for the evening, without doing these I’d fear I’d be opening and closing my laptop, checking on ‘one last thing’, when I’d much rather enjoy my leisure and family time fully focused on the present.