A Better Way to End the Day
Most people end their workday by simply stopping work and moving on (or even worse, letting work bleed into their personal life). But if you want to stay positive, continually improve, and make meaningful progress towards your goals, you should implement a consistent, brief, end-of-workday routine.
I want to drill down on two powerful prompts in the Happiful Planner that are part of this routine: “Today’s Wins” and “How I’ll Improve.” These two short sections can boost your confidence and motivation, and drive continuous improvement to make tomorrow better than today.
Step One: The Daily Shutdown Ritual
At the end of your workday, take just a few minutes for your Daily Shutdown. This is your intentional transition between “on” and “off”; between work and personal time. It allows your mind to let go of unfinished tasks, reset from stress, and get ready for rest. It also helps you to set your plans and priorities for the next day so you hit the ground running. And it makes sure you are focused on and enjoy your time with family or friends after your workday is done.
Here’s the Daily Shutdown:
Review your day: Scan back through your day to recall what happened. It can help to review your planner, calendar, and your phone’s Recent Calls.
Acknowledge your wins: Even small wins count. No matter the day, some things went well! I try to find at least 3 each day.
Identify one way to improve: Pick a specific, actionable tweak you can make for the future.
Plan for tomorrow: Review tomorrow’s schedule and list your handful of top priority actions for the day.
Disconnect: Turn off your computer and put your phone in a drawer.
This short routine lowers stress, helps you focus on the important people in your life, boosts your confidence, drives continuous improvement, and ensures you have a highly productive day every day.
“Today’s Wins” – Why it’s Needed and How it Works
Humans have evolved to have what’s called a “negativity bias”, in which we pay far more attention to our problems and mistakes than we do to positive events. This is natural and instinctive, so we need a method to beat it. Forcing yourself to reflect back on the day to identify what went well is one powerful technique that helps. Instead of feeling like the day was wasted and dwelling on what went wrong, you spend just a moment recognizing the day’s wins. Your mind can only have one thought at a time, so focusing on the positives drives out the negatives, leaving you more positive and confident.
Happiness researchers say that one of the biggest drivers of happiness is making progress towards a meaningful goal. So when you reflect back on your day’s wins, you will recognize the progress you’re making, which will also make you happier.
The Happiful Planner has the “Today’s Wins” section to force you to go through this reflection and recognition process each day during your Daily Shutdown, turning the instinctive negative mindset into a positive one. By writing it down instead of just thinking about it, you are forced to be clear and specific, and you also reinforce the effect greatly through the physical act of writing.
“Daily Wins” Examples:
“I stuck to my exercise plan for the day.”
“Had a great brainstorming session with the team.”
“Set 2 prospect appointments for next week.”
“How I’ll Improve” – Helps You Get Better Every Day
On the flip side, no matter how good your day was, there’s always a lesson to take forward. This daily practice is not for beating yourself up. Instead, pretend you’re a compassionate coach who has your best interests at heart: what one thing would they tell you that you could improve on from your day?
The reflection helps with self-awareness and ensures that you identify specific ways to improve, resulting in continuous improvement. I like to limit it to just one thing, which both prevents me from getting too critical and makes sure that the positives from my 3+ “Daily Wins” outweigh the implied negative of “How I’ll Improve”.
Writing it down makes it concrete and actionable, and putting it in writing also makes you more likely to follow through.
“How I’ll Improve” Examples:
“Get on my top priority tasks first thing in the day.”
“Respond to emails in batches instead of checking throughout the day.”
“Before my calls and meetings, take a few minutes to prepare and decide my objectives and how I want to show up.”
Why the Planner Makes This Work
The free Happiful Planner is structured to give you clarity and focus and to boost your mindset. Alongside “Today’s Wins” and “How I’ll Improve,” it includes:
Calendar section to make sure you know what is scheduled for the upcoming day
Daily priorities section so you focus on what matters most, and to clearly separate your important tasks from other less important things to do
Gratitude journal section
Affirmation section and more
And it’s free! Just download the form, print out 7 copies each week and fill it out each day during your Daily Shutdown
Ready to See the Difference?
End your day feeling accomplished, clear-minded, and ready for tomorrow. The Happiful Planner makes it easy, and you can download it for free to get started today.
