Most months, when you read my column, you get insight into one of my favorite productivity tools. I think the right tool at the right time is important. One of the most deceptively powerful productivity tools I’ve ever adopted isn’t about doing more. It’s about stopping — intentionally, confidently, and without the mental residue that follows so many of us into the evening.
It’s called End Your Day with Order (EWO) or the Friday 45. This is where you don’t work up until the last minute, but instead spend the last few moments of the day/week putting stuff away and preparing for your next productive session. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems,” highlighting that consistent habits (systems) build long-term results, not just fleeting goals, making the process (system) more important than the outcome (goal) for real change.
Here’s my EWO system:
1. One trusted capture place: Before anything else, I do a final sweep. Loose notes, sticky thoughts, random to-dos — all of it gets captured in one place. Not five apps. Not my inbox and my notebook and my phone. Just one system my brain trusts.
2. A short “tomorrow list”: This is not a full task dump. It’s a short, realistic list of what actually matters tomorrow. When your brain knows what’s coming next — and that it’s been chosen intentionally — it relaxes. In an interview on the podcast The Diary of a CEO, James Clear talked about learning to become a writer and how he put a Post-It note on his keyboard describing what he would write about the next day. No more pause to think about what to do!
3. Calendar alignment: I quickly glance at the next day’s calendar and make sure my expectations match reality. Meetings accounted for. Transitions acknowledged. No surprises waiting to ambush Future Me.
We all know these things, and I am sure that I am not the first person to introduce you to these ideas. So, why don’t we do them? Because we have forgotten the most important part, and it’s something that, in our busy world, has gotten lost. As Socrates said, “Understanding a question is half the answer.” We need to know why we don’t do certain things, and what gets in the way!
This year, I’m excited to bring my better half — my husband, Steve — into this column with me. Alongside my practical productivity tools, he’ll be sharing mindset insights to help you actually do the things you already know are important. Because productivity without the right mindset rarely sticks. Think of this as Productivity + Mindset, working together. Let’s start with one of Steve’s favorites:
4. The closing phrase: Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, calls this practice “Shutdown Complete.” The idea is simple but profound: End your workday with a deliberate ritual that closes open loops, creates a plan for what’s next, and signals to your brain that it is safe to rest. When done well, this single habit can dramatically reduce overwhelm, improve focus the next day, and reclaim your evenings as actual off-time.
But here’s the key: Shutdown Complete only works if it’s paired with order. Without structure, your brain doesn’t believe you. It keeps spinning, rehearsing, worrying, and reminding you of all the things you might forget.
So, if your brain won’t let go at the end of the day, review steps 1-3. If you’ve technically “stopped working,” but you still feel mentally on call, that’s not a willpower issue. It’s a clarity issue.
Your brain is a threat-detection system. When tasks are unfinished, undocumented, or floating vaguely in your head, your brain keeps them active. This is why you can be sitting on the couch at 8:30 p.m. and suddenly remember an email you didn’t send or a detail you didn’t capture.
So, make sure you EWO — keep one trusted place to capture things, make your short to-do list (or Post-It on your keyboard), and look at your calendar, and then say (out loud, if possible), “Shutdown complete!” Or, “Finished!” Or, “DONE!”
It may feel a little silly at first. It is also wildly effective.
When you end the day with order, you don’t carry work into rest. You don’t lie awake mentally rearranging tomorrow. You don’t start the next day already behind. Instead, you start from clarity.
Shutdown Complete isn’t about rigid productivity or squeezing more output from your day. It’s about protecting your attention, your energy, and your life outside of work. It’s about setting a boundary about when you work AND when you don’t.
The goal isn’t to work longer.
It’s to work cleanly — and then be done.
And when your day ends with intention and order, rest finally gets to be what it’s meant to be. In my next article, I’ll introduce you to another mindset idea that shows you how our physiology drives our psychology! I bet you can’t wait!
Together, Sara and Steve Caputo combine practical productivity tools with powerful mindset work to help people work better, lead better, and live with greater clarity and intention. Through speaking, training, and advisory work, they support organizations and individuals in creating meaningful, sustainable change — both professionally and personally. When they’re not working, Sara and Steve are busy raising their teenage boys, navigating the daily realities of family life with the same clarity, humor, and intention they bring to their work.
