You finally get an hour on the business after the kids are asleep. You make progress, the hour runs out, and you close the laptop mid-thought. Then the unfinished task follows you to bed. The next evening, you spend the first 20 minutes figuring out where you left off.
A short shutdown note fixes both problems. It takes about five minutes at the end of each work session, and it’s one of the simplest habits you can add to a side business.
Why Unfinished Work Lingers
Psychologists have long observed that unfinished goals tend to stay on our minds. In a set of studies published in 2011 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister looked at what happens when people make a plan for an unfinished task. Unfinished goals produced intrusive thoughts and interfered with unrelated tasks, but when participants made a specific plan for finishing the goal, those effects largely went away. The researchers suggested that committing to a plan lets the mind set the goal aside until the planned time.
These were lab studies, and no single paper settles a question. But the practical takeaway is reasonable and low-risk: you don’t have to finish a task to stop thinking about it. You need to decide, concretely, what happens next and when.
What Goes in a Shutdown Note
Keep it in one place you’ll see at the start of your next session: a notebook, a pinned note on your phone or a text file on your desktop. Four lines are enough:
- Where I stopped. “Halfway through the second section of the welcome email.”
- The very next action. Make it physical and small: “Write the paragraph about what subscribers get each week.” Not “keep working on email.”
- When I’ll do it. “Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., kitchen table.”
- Anything parked. Ideas, questions or worries that came up, written down so you don’t have to hold them in your head.
If you use if-then plans, the third line fits neatly into that format: “If it’s Tuesday at 8:30, then I open the draft and write the subscriber paragraph.” Our guide to if-then plans explains the research behind that approach.
Make the Ending Clear
The note works best when it marks a clear end to the session. After writing it, do one small closing action every time: close the tabs, put the notebook away or say “done for today” out loud if that helps. The point is to signal to yourself that the work has a plan and you’re off duty now.
This matters for more than productivity. If business thoughts keep running late at night, sleep can suffer, and so can the energy you bring to everything else. Our post on protecting your sleep while building a side business covers other ways to keep evenings from bleeding into the night. If racing thoughts or poor sleep persist, talk to a doctor or another qualified professional.
Start the Next Session With the Note
The other half of the habit is reading the note first. Before you open email, social media or analytics, read the four lines and do the next action you wrote down. Starting with a small, already-decided task gets you moving faster than deciding from scratch, and it protects the limited time you have.
Over a few weeks, the notes also become a simple log of progress, which is useful on evenings when it feels like nothing is moving.
Do This Today
At the end of your next work session, set a five-minute timer and write the four lines: where you stopped, the next action, when you’ll do it and anything parked. Put the note where you’ll see it first next time.
More on Totally Relentless
- If-Then Plans: A Research-Backed Way to Follow Through After Your Day Job
- Protect Your Sleep While Building a Side Business
- Time Blocking Around a Day Job: A Practical Weekly Plan
