How a Productivity Expert Shifts From Work Mode to Non-Work Mode
You’ll work harder and your time after work will be more meaningful
Most people approach their workday by trying to cross things off a task list in the small slivers of time that remain between attending meetings and reacting to emails and instant messages, often late into the evening. I prefer “time blocking” — partitioning my day into blocks of time, and assigning specific work to each. This systematic approach for working through my daily tasks has been instrumental in my last 15 years of work, during which I earned a PhD from MIT, then tenure at Georgetown University — all while publishing six books, including multiple bestsellers.
Most importantly, I did all of this while rarely working past 5:30 p.m. (I need my evenings free to wrangle my three young kids.)
Whenever I’m discussing my time blocking system, something I make sure to emphasize is the essential step of a “shutdown ritual.” At the end of each workday, your final step, if at all possible, is to shut down work. That doesn’t mean abandoning whatever you’re in the middle of doing but rather, taking a moment to help your mind shift more completely from work mode to non-work mode.
