Lower Stress With an End-of-Day Ritual | Dr. Cal Newport & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Dr. Cal Newport and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the importance of having a shutdown ritual to disconnect from work, avoid rumination and improve mental health.

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Timestamps
00:00 Mastering the Shutdown Ritual for Work-Life Balance
01:05 The Power of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Work Shutdown
02:31 The Impact of Work Thoughts on Sleep and Relationships
03:44 Concluding Thoughts and Invitation to Watch Full Episode

#HubermanLab #CalNewport

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[magicalfrijoles]

I work from home. After I shutdown my laptop I leave the house. It can be to go on a walk or drive to the grocery store. Whatever it is, I make sure to leave the house since I just spent all day there.

[Bcosmo]

This is what Amazon workers are encouraged to do.

At the end of their day they say “shutdown sequence activate” and the next shift worker wheels them off and parks them in a closet until the next morning.

[AGenerationJones]

The last thing I do is make a to-do list, in order of priority for the next day. That way, the next day I am organized and can hit the ground running.

[AliceHeiman]

This is so important. I’ve read Deep Work and need to remember to do this.

[keithb]

If I may wedge into Huberman's very good point on making the bed/bedroom a place of peace for sleep- I believe 20 mins is too brief before a reset from lying in bed. (first pro tip; don't ever look at your clock during the night; its data that can only make problems, not solve any)... 20 min breaks can happen too often and easily to warrant getting out of bed. Also, it's always so near that you may stress about how little time you have left before you have to pull that ripcord. Our solution: we have a white noise machine (you can set it for any interval). It usually eases us to sleep, while drowning out ambient noises. Finally, if I do stay awake until the interval (e.g. 45 min), that informs me that it's been long enough, and I should reset. I never had to watch a clock.

[tonyantmann]

I use a standing desk. In the afternoon it eventually finds it’s way down (sitting position). My last actions every day, work phone off, standing desk raised, chair tucked underneath. Visual and physical process. And ready to start the next morning with positive energy.

[odds]

My ritual is opening my home office door and two toddlers being thrust at me, usually screaming or arguing, while my struggling wife hobbles upstairs. sometimesin tears!

[nevvanclarke]

I work in a really hard job working in addictions helping people recover from drug and alcohol issues and my day can be filled with people in trauma and some really difficult challenging situations. the first thing I do is I always park my car about 500 m from work so this involves a walk that short walk which is only five minutes. Maybe it basically clears my head. Just motion of walking feeling 1 foot in front of the other engages, a different part of the brain.

I do something interesting when I get to my car. I take my shoes off and put a different pair of shoes on. This is the starting point to getting out of work mode those feet carried the energy. After that I make a choice of what my body and mine feels like and I have a variety of strategies none of them include alcohol. I either go into nature and take photos? I'm also a professional photographer now... I might go to the gym. I might go and see my partner. I might combine all three of those in one thing but I try and do something different to keep it interesting. Don't resort to the same coping strategy..

[edgiraffr]

My problem is my ritual starts with a beer

[Mwilke]

Kids: Mom can I have water, I'm thirs-
Me: SCHEDULE SHUTDOWN COMPLETE!

[Seabeams]

What about “revenge bedtime procrastination”? I don’t think about work but I crave fun and distraction to decompress and end up browsing online till I feel de-stressed enough to sleep

[codycurnutte]

I started doing this naturally once my son was born. I didn’t have a choice but to be present when my son was a baby. So I’d go over what I had to get done first thing the next day and make sure I knew what the first move was. Then I’d log out and move on with the family part of the day. I removed all work messaging apps from my phone and drew a clear line between work and private life and my stress went down 10 fold. I hit the career and post secondary education grind 8 years now it’s time for balance and family focus.

[EcomCarl]

Cal Newport's shutdown ritual is a game-changer for maintaining work-life balance! 🌟 Implementing a simple yet effective routine like this can help us transition from work mode to relaxation mode, boosting both mental health and productivity.

[Grumpisaurus]

I usually end my work day by poking the voodoo doll made to look like the head engineer, then i offer the body of a chicken to a pagan god... But i guess this works too

[wannabedal-adx]

The problem with not asking, "How was your day at work?" is that you don't connect with that person on what is important or happening in their life. Yes our work should not define us but it is a large part of our lives. Maybe not talking about the tasks or technical parts of work (including schedule), but the other person may want to vent about or share praise about work relationships. That has been an uplift to me throughout my life (and a source of stress when it is not present). Good video and good information. Should expand upon this for people working from home.

[pratikkkothari]

I just browse through such videos after work

[kawaiikaikee]

Wish this worked for my type of work. I have to be available via phone and text even after my scheduled hours. Work often seeps into my life even as early as 4 am. I think there's nothing I can do except change jobs.

[thoughtank]

From my own experience, I recommend that if you can't sleep get up, but don't go to the couch or turn on the TV or anything like that, I would go out and take a walk. You should try not to think, as that is one of the main reasons we can't go back to sleep, we start thinking too much, but instead look around, put your attention on what you see outside, the trees, the plants, buildings around etc. You want to extravert. When you start to get sleepy make your way back to your bed, you don't want to fight the desire to sleep. You want to get back in bed as soon as you feel a good amount of sleep tiredness.

[essentialdeparture]

Great stuff. I’m sure it wasn’t the wording you’d intended, but if trying to sleep is “effort” you need to make a change in that aspect of sleep.

[AdamKMarsh]

I feel for ya man. Sounds like this was a gathering of your thoughts mostly pointing to a common theme - too much. Sounds like its time to simplify, maybe a little less DIY and pay some people to do some things for you so you can have actual downtime. I appreciate the openness an honesty. Keep at it man.