How calling it a day helps you destress, work less and accomplish more

In our modern world, most of us "could fill any arbitrary number of hours with what feels to be productive work", according to Cal Newport. Yet, unless you're Elon Musk, doing that will leave you stressed, overworked and ultimately unproductive.

Conversely, having a routine to call it a day goes a long way to make us more efficient, recharge our ability to focus, and even boost our creativity. In his book "Deep Work", Newport explains why.

First, our capacity for "deep", focused work is limited to 3-4 hours per day. After reaching our focus limit during a busy day, working into the night usually happens at a low level of mental energy. In that state, we're a lot less efficient. We work slower and make more mistakes. That's why postponing that work to the following day is usually a much better idea.

Second, restoring our capacity for focused work requires uninterrupted freedom from directing our attention towards work. According to what scientists call "attention restoration theory", spending our evenings working – or even handling some email in between – will rob your directed attention centers of the downtime they need for restoration.

Third, giving our conscious mind a break triggers our unconscious mind to work on things that are important to us. That's what happens when we get flashes of creative inspiration while brushing our teeth or taking a shower. According to "unconscious thought theory", the unconscious parts of our mind are especially well suited for problems that involve large amounts of information and multiple vague constraints. So, calling it a day "is not necessarily reducing the amount of time you're engaged in productive work, but is instead diversifying the type of work you deploy", as Newport puts it.

Against this background, he recommends performing a shutdown ritual to end our workday. At whatever time your weekly plan and workload permit, it includes three steps:

1) Take a last look at your email inbox. Ensure there is nothing left that requires an urgent response before the day ends.

2) Transfer all the new tasks and ideas you have captured over the day to your official to-do list. If you have a designated place for collecting ideas, put them there.

3) Skim through your official to-do list and the next few days of your calendar.

These simple steps ensure that you don't miss any deadlines or appointments. I perform these steps each evening to review everything on my professional plate. It has worked wonders for my efficiency, focus and creativity.

On top of that, Newport recommends two extra steps. First, come up with a rough plan in your head for the next day. Second, make a mental statement (e.g. "shutdown complete") to yourself as you complete the ritual. Both provide an extra signal to your mind that there is nothing left to worry about at work.

After Newport developed this shutdown ritual as a student, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in computer science at MIT. After that, he achieved tenure as a professor at Georgetown University. He also published seven books for general audiences, many of which became bestsellers. The most impressive part: He accomplished all this while rarely working past 5.30 pm – to spend ample time with his wife and four young kids.

Against this background, here's a question: What could a similar shutdown ritual do for you?