End of Workday Routine: What to Do in the Last 10 Minutes
A 10-minute end-of-workday routine that fixes tomorrow morning: catch loose ends, write your first task in detail, log what you did, and leave a clean start.
Quick answer: Use the last 10 minutes of your workday to fix whatever slows you down the next morning. Catch loose ends (follow-ups, unanswered messages), write tomorrow's first task in specific detail and leave it where you'll see it, note what you got done today, then close everything. Tomorrow starts with doing, not deciding.
Why the last 10 minutes matter
A thread in r/productivity this week asked what people do in the last 10 minutes of the workday. The person asking already wrote down the first thing to do tomorrow, so they weren't starting the next morning from zero, and wondered if there was something better.
The most upvoted reply turned the question around. What costs you the most time the next morning: deciding what to do, remembering where you left off, or reopening everything you need? Use the last 10 minutes to remove whichever of those keeps happening.
That's a better starting point than a generic shutdown ritual, because everyone's slow mornings have a different cause.
Find what costs you time in the morning
| Tomorrow morning you lose time to… | Spend the last 10 minutes on… |
|---|---|
| Deciding what to do first | Writing tomorrow's first task in specific detail, plus your top three for the day |
| Remembering where you left off | A two-line note on where you stopped and what comes next |
| Reopening files, tabs and tools | Leaving the doc, tab or workbook you need open and ready |
| Loose ends you forgot overnight | A quick sweep of sent mail and messages for anything that needs a follow-up |
| Not remembering what you did, months later | A short "done" log for reviews and status updates |
Pick the one or two rows that match your mornings. You don't need all five.
A 10-minute end-of-workday routine
- Sweep loose ends (3 minutes). Look through today's sent mail and messages for anything waiting on a reply, and give each one a reminder or a task. One commenter does this in Outlook by dragging emails into tasks. In new Outlook, Outlook on the web and Outlook.com you can drag an email into the To Do pane to make it a task (checked on 4 October 2026).
- Write tomorrow's first task in detail (2 minutes). Not "sales report" but "open the Q3 workbook and update the sales figures". Another commenter's tip: leave the list somewhere you'll physically see it, like on your keyboard, so you start before you can drift.
- Write the first sentence (1 minute). If tomorrow starts with writing, write the first sentence of it now and leave that tab open. Starting a half-begun thing is easier than starting a blank one.
- Log what you did (2 minutes). A few lines on what you finished today. One commenter keeps this for end-of-year conversations with their manager, and it's also how you write a status update in a minute instead of twenty.
- Close up (2 minutes). Close tabs you won't need, clear your downloads folder, tidy the desk. The point is that tomorrow's screen shows only what you left out on purpose.
If someone picks up after you
If a colleague takes over when you leave, the last 10 minutes belong to them. One commenter, a hospital unit coordinator, spends that time handing over to the next shift: what's in progress, what's coming in, and what they need to know. Even outside shift work, a short written handover (what's in progress, what's blocked, what's due) saves the next person from piecing it together.
How Blip AI makes the end-of-day notes faster
Most of this routine is writing: the follow-up replies, tomorrow's note, the done log. Typed, that's what gets skipped when you're tired. We build Blip AI, a dictation app that types polished text into any app with a text field: your notes app, task manager, Notion, Slack and email.
- Say tomorrow's note. Click into your notes or task app, hold Fn on Mac, Ctrl + Win on Windows or Ctrl + Super on Linux, and say where you stopped and what's first tomorrow. Speech runs at about 150 words per minute against about 52 for the average typist, so the whole note takes seconds.
- Clean text, not a transcript. Blip removes filler words and fixes punctuation and formatting, so tired end-of-day rambling still reads clearly tomorrow morning.
- Close loose ends with Action Mode. For a follow-up you've been putting off, start with "Hey Blip" and describe it, for example "Hey Blip, reply that I'll send the revised quote tomorrow by noon." Blip drafts the email or Slack message for you to check and send.
- Your notes stay yours. Dictation history is stored locally on your device, not on Blip's servers.
Blip runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, and the free plan includes 2,000 words a month. Download Blip AI. For the inbox side of loose ends, see how to spend less time on email, and for ideas that come to you after hours, how to turn voice notes into tasks.
FAQ
What should I do at the end of the workday? Spend about 10 minutes catching loose ends such as unanswered messages and follow-ups, writing tomorrow's first task in specific detail, logging what you finished, and closing what you don't need. Focus on whatever usually slows down your next morning.
What is a shutdown routine? A shutdown routine is a short, repeatable set of steps at the end of the workday that wraps up open tasks and plans the next day, so you can stop thinking about work in the evening and start quickly the next morning.
How do I start work faster in the morning? Decide your first task the evening before and write it in specific detail, leave the file or tab you need open, and keep the note somewhere you'll see it as soon as you sit down. Starting with a clear first action beats starting with a decision.
Should I keep a done list? Yes, if you ever write status updates or have performance reviews. A few lines a day about what you finished takes two minutes and saves hours of trying to remember months later.
How long should an end-of-day routine take? About 10 minutes is enough for most people. If it takes much longer, it's usually because you're doing tomorrow's work today; keep it to capturing, planning and closing.