Evening Routine to Calm Your Mind & Disconnect from Work

Is your mind still racing with work thoughts and to do’s even after you go home or log off for the day? When your work is stressful and you haven’t set boundaries, not just to physically separate, but also to mentally separate your work from your personal life, it can be difficult to be present for your loved ones, to sleep at night, and to actually enjoy your life outside of work.

No matter what type of job you have. Having an evening wind down ritual can help you to mentally disconnect from work to leave the stress and worries at the door so you can fully enjoy your evening.

Welcome to Calmly Coping. My name is Tati Garcia and I’m a licensed therapist and coach specializing in helping high achievers reduce anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm so they can feel calm, balanced, and confident from within. If this topic interests you, then please like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so you’ll be notified every time I release a new episode.

Thank you so much for tuning in. Why is an evening wind down routine after work important? Well first, it provides cues to your mind and body to disconnect. So this can be a sequence of different habits that communicates to your brain Okay, we’re leaving work at the door and it’s time to transition into personal lifetime.

And it allows you to let go of those things from work and be present in whatever is coming next for you. So I’m going to share my simple five step process to help you to wind down in the evenings. step one is to tie up loose ends. So this is doing a final check of your emails, messages, anything else like that, and tie up any loose ends and any tasks that are still kind of hanging over your head or need to be concluded for the day or for the week and add any additional tasks that maybe you didn’t have the time to get to to your to do list for the next day or the next week or whenever you’re able to get to them depending on the priority for this task. This is a 10 to 15 minute ritual at the end of your day that can make a massive difference in helping you have peace of mind and clarity.

So not just in disconnecting from the day but also having a plan to address things that you may have not been able to address during that day in at a future time. Step two is to celebrate your accomplishments. This is an often overlooked step that is massively impactful, especially if you’re somebody who’s high achieving and you tend to just accomplish something and move on to the next thing without actually recognizing what you’re already doing well.

So this is no matter how big or small. Looking back and reflecting on your day and patting yourself on the back for what you did accomplish, even if it seemed like minor things, even if it’s just the normal day in and day out, this process of recognizing and celebrating those things is reinforcing in your mind that you actually are doing a lot more than you give yourself credit for rather than fixating on all the things that you weren’t able to get to. And it’s also about giving yourself compassion for the things that you weren’t able to get to because things aren’t going to always go according to plan. And that’s perfectly okay. So celebrating your wins is super important to help you build that muscle to focus on what’s going well, which actually helps you to compound your your performance and achievement, because this is kind of like a snowball effect.

When you can recognize what’s going well, then you’re going to continue to grow and build upon those things. Rather than staying fixated in fix it mode of what’s wrong, you’re actually building upon your wins and your progress, feeling more motivated as a result, and then carrying that into your performance day in and day out.

And on top of that, it’s also going to improve your mood. in the process. Step three is to mentally let go of your work day. And the most important part of this cue is beforehand. And that is all about practicing, letting go of anything from work. So you’re going to basically tell yourself, okay, I have tied up loose ends.

I’ve celebrated my wins. Now it’s time to move on. And I’m done. let go of the work day and tell myself, and this is a practice, this is a skill that you cultivate, but tell yourself, all right, if thoughts come up related to work, if I have the urge to check emails or do anything else, then tell yourself, I’ve left work at the doorstep.

If I really remember something that comes up and I know I need to remember for the next day, I’m going to write it down and I’m going to address it. When I return to work in the morning and asking yourself, if something does come up, is this really an emergency? Oftentimes things can feel more urgent than they really are.

And if you’re breaking that boundary and checking an email or just doing one small work task, it might feel minor and it might feel super important, but unless this is something that is a predetermined part of your work routine, you’re somebody who is on call or you need to address emergencies, Then oftentimes this is just going to mentally put you back into work mode and open the floodgates to think about all of those stresses and potential worries that could be coming up rather than creating that separation that is so important to decompress and recharge and allow you to return the next day ready to dive into things.

And as a bonus to help you to transition into this step, I created a five minute guided meditation to help you wind down from work, to help you reflect on your day, let go of anything mentally, congratulate yourself and practice gratitude. All in five minutes. You can download this for free by going to calmlycoping.com/evening. That’s calmly coping. com slash E V E N I N G. You can also click on the link below. In the description, step four is to have a shutdown cue or practice. This is something that I learned from Cal Newport in his book, deep work, but it’s basically about something that communicates to your mind.

All right, we’re shifting gears into home mode. So maybe if you’re somebody who works from home, this can be changing into a different set of clothing or going for a walk around your block. Maybe if you’re somebody who drives into the office, it can be listening to your favorite show on the radio or a certain type of music, or maybe it is taking a deep breath, anything that you can consistently stick to that’s going to communicate to your brain.

We’re doing this thing, no matter how long it takes, it could be 30 seconds to however long. After I complete this habit, then it’s time to wind down. And step five isn’t really necessarily a specific thing that you have to follow through with, but I find that it can be really helpful to help you to disconnect from work at a certain time.

And this is to have something planned for when you get out of work. So maybe you want to communicate to yourself, I want to shut down at this time. But you tend to push it back and say, Oh, just a little bit more. If you have something specific planned, then that’s kind of a reminder of right. I need to make sure that I get off in time for this.

So I’m going to ensure that I am disconnecting from work at this specific time. So recently, what has worked for me is that I’ve made it a point to watch Jeopardy in the evening. and this starts at 7 p. m eastern time in my time zone and I typically, my working schedule is like 10 to 6 or 11 to 7 so I will make it a point to try and finish work so that I can catch Jeopardy in the evening and That’s something that is motivating for me because I love watching Jeopardy.

But maybe for you it is plans in the evening or maybe it is time with a family member or loved one or whatever it could be. Even if you don’t follow through with the thing every single day because we don’t necessarily want to have specific plans every night unless you’re somebody who enjoys that.

Then it’s just about creating that intention for yourself that this is your relaxation time So maybe it’s a date with yourself to make dinner and enjoy your favorite tv show or maybe it is Plans with your children to spend quality time and play a game with them Whatever it is for you setting a specific time can help you end your work day When you plan to, and then transition into that evening relaxation mode.

And again, if you want some guided support to help you to wind down into your evening, you can download my free five minute guided meditation at calmlycoping.com/evening. And if you’re interested in getting access to my entire library of five minute exercises, these are quick five minute practices that you can do wherever you are to help you to shift your mindset to help you to create more work life balance and help you to feel more confident and calm your mind.

And when you join, you actually will start with our 21 day calm and resilient challenge to help you lay the framework. for creating healthy habits in your life. And this can help you to create calm and set healthy boundaries. You can learn more and join Calm & Ambitious by going to calmandambitious.com or clicking on the link in the description.

My question for you, and you can leave this in the comments if you’re watching on YouTube or listening on Spotify, Spotify is what helps you wind down after work. Let me know so that you can share it with me and so that others can learn about maybe some ideas or suggestions for ways to wind down after work.

While you wait for next week’s episode, I have other episodes about calming your mind, improving work life balance, and increasing your confidence from within. You can check out these episodes here. Thank you so much for tuning in today and until next time, be calm.