12 Healthy Habits to End Your Workday
Does it feel like your workday never really ends? Do you feel lost and aimless after work? Do you feel anxious every evening post-work?
With remote jobs, hybrid environments, and the struggle to find a decent work-life balance, many find the end of their workday stressful, ambiguous, and unsatisfying. Some can’t help but think about work all night, and others feel like they waste their free time in the evening.
To help you close the book on your workday and make the most of your post-work hours, we recommend implementing as many of these habits as possible!
Find a Post-work Routine That Suits You
Before diving into our list of healthy habits, we want to say that these habits can help everyone, no matter what type of work you do. Everyone needs a healthy post-work routine, from bus drivers to CEOs to birthday party clowns.
Just because we use an example below that may not apply to you doesn’t mean the recommended habit can’t apply to you!
Tidy Your Workspace
If you’re a busy worker, it’s easy to grind and grind up until the very last second and then rush out of work, leaving everything in disarray. This is not a productive way to end your workday, even if it feels like it is. Stop working a few minutes sooner and take that time to physically and digitally button up your space.
Plan for Tomorrow
Planning for the next workday may not seem like a great way to disconnect from work, but the Zegarnik Effect states that not addressing unfinished things can make it impossible to turn off your work brain. If you leave loose ends that weigh on your brain, you might still feel like you’re at work. However, planning when and how to tackle these to-dos helps you close your day smoothly.
Set a Hard Stopping Time
This habit is incredibly important if you work for yourself or at home. People often work more than planned because finding a good stopping point and calling it a day can be tough. Set a strict end-of-day time for yourself. If you don’t want to stop at the same time every day, vary the times by weekday or simply set the time at the beginning of your workday.
End With Gratitude and Forgiveness
Exercise gratitude and forgiveness when wrapping up and looking back on your day. Say grateful and forgiving sentences out loud, clearly in your head, or write them down. Be grateful for what you accomplished or learned. Forgive yourself for what you didn’t get to or didn’t complete perfectly.
Resist the Urge to Doom Scroll
Many people pounce on their phones when they clock out. They immediately fall into Twitter (X), Reddit, Instagram, or TikTok and end up doom scrolling for hours. This makes it tough to nourish yourself after work, so try your best to stay off social media or other addictive apps immediately after work.
Practice Mindfulness
You probably hear this all the time, but it deserves repeating. When we say “practice mindfulness,” we mean take a moment to be present, acknowledge yourself and the world, and find a little stillness. We highly recommend calming breathing exercises or meditation immediately after work, even if it’s only for 60 seconds!
Listen to an End-Of-Work Song
The link between human memory/emotions and music is fascinating. Experts recommend putting on your favorite song when your workday ends to let your brain know you’re off the clock. But this won’t work if you listen to your favorite music while working.
Instead, we suggest choosing a specific song that you only put on to signify the end of your workday. Maybe it’s something poignantly funny like Beyonce’s “Freedom” or Taylor Swift’s “I Hate It Here.”
Change Your Clothes
We recommend changing your clothes as soon as possible after work. You can even change clothes at work as you’re heading out. This can help you “shed” the workday and settle into your post-work life. Even if you plan to go somewhere after work and before home, try to bring a change of clothes.
Tackle Any Home Chores
When you finally get home (or just leave your home office), tackle any unpleasant tasks as soon as possible. Do any dishes, laundry, lawnmowing, cleaning, or prepping for tomorrow first, so these tasks don’t feel like dark clouds hovering over your whole evening. Plus, doing these things means you can’t immediately doom scroll.
Rebalance Your Senses
Depending on your job, you may feel overstimulated or understimulated at work. Do things that can counteract any discomfort concerning your senses.
For example, you may need total quiet after leaving a loud office, or you may want to smell something sweet after working in a pungent factory. Identify what aspects of your job imbalance your senses and find ways to counteract them right after work.
Fulfill Your Physical Needs
Similar to resetting your senses, you should fulfill any physical needs. If you have a highly active job, take some time to be still and comfy. If you have a sedentary job, consider going on a walk or exercise class after work. If you stand all day, sit down. If you sit all day, stand up. You get the idea; give your body what it didn’t get while you were at work.
Meet Your Emotional Needs
You must also fulfill your emotional needs. Assess what aspects of work affect your emotions and adjust accordingly.
You might be emotionally exhausted from dealing with customers, so asking loved ones for quiet time is okay. If you’re lonely at work, make plans to see friends in the evening so you can socialize. People who feel micromanaged may do something they have complete control over, like cooking dinner. Those who manage everyone at work may want to do something mindless, like rewatching a comforting TV show.
12 Simple Tips For Chronically Late People
We’ve all been late before and we’ve all waited on someone who was late. It’s usually not the end of the world, but tardiness should not be a habit.
Being late here and there is forgivable. Being late to every single thing is stressful, disrespectful, and unnecessary. If you’re chronically late to everything, we have helpful tips and tricks to implement into your routine. With a little effort, you can curb your tardy habits and become pleasantly punctual.
Every day, you get 1,440 minutes. Use them wisely, and you can skyrocket your productivity.
Hidden in those minutes is the chance to make a big difference with tiny habits that take just one minute. These super easy habits fit into your day so smoothly you’ll hardly notice them. But don’t let that fool you. Their simplicity is what makes them stick.
You have all over 1400 minutes every day—why not spend a few on habits that pay off big time? Here are 13 micro-habits that promise to streamline your workflow and maximize your output with the least effort, proving that sometimes, the smallest tweaks lead to the greatest gains.
Veronica is a lifestyle and culture writer from Boston, MA, with a passion for entertainment, fashion, and food. She graduated from Boston University in 2019 with a bachelor's in English literature. If she's not in the kitchen trying new recipes, she's binging the latest HBO series, catching up on the hottest trends in Vogue, or falling down a research rabbit hole. Her writing experience ranges from global news articles to celebrity gossip pieces to movie reviews and more.
Her byline appears in publications like The Weather Channel, The Daily Meal, The Borgen Project, MSN, Wealth of Geeks, and Not Deer Magazine. She writes about what inspires her — a stylish Wes Anderson film, a clever cleaning hack, a surprising fashion trend. When she’s not writing about life's little joys, she’s keeping her dog away from rabbits and spending too much money on kitchenware.
