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Productivity systems are all about speed, efficiency, and automation. The goal is to get more things done in less time.
Productivity rituals, on the other hand, evoke a very different mindset: a deliberate slowing down to reflect, plan, and give meaning to the things you accomplish each day. Rituals are something to savor rather than rush through as efficiently as possible.
If dedicating time each day and week to think, dream, and scheme rather than do feels self-indulgent, that’s because it is! In the best of ways. Think of your rituals as sacred time and space for getting off the productivity treadmill, taking a deep mental breath, and checking in with yourself and your goals.
We’ve written about many different types of productivity rituals in the past, but these four are the ones I think are key to feeling calm, capable, and resilient in the face of the unexpected:
1. Your Morning Ritual
Do something that sets you up for a day of acting rather than reacting. Maybe it's taking a walk around your neighborhood, getting in a yoga session, reading a book, journaling, or simply enjoying the view out your window while doing nothing at all.
Last year, Chase, Doist’s head of business development, wrote about how to “pay” yourself first. His article completely changed the way I approach the first hours of my day. If you find yourself sitting down to work already feeling rushed and overwhelmed, I recommend revisiting Chase’s article for a fresh perspective.
2. Your Weekly Review
Set aside a full hour (minimum) to take stock of the week gone by and prepare for the one ahead. This is your opportunity to check in with your big picture goals and make sure the things you’re working on are the things you want to be working on. Make your weekly review special. Do it in your favorite spot with your favorite beverage, treat, notebook, and pen.
Fadeke wrote an excellent guide to conducting a weekly review, including a Todoist template you can use as a starting point for your own weekly reflection and planning ritual.
3. Planning Your Day
If your weekly review is an opportunity to reflect on the big picture, your daily planning ritual is a chance to turn your high-level goals and intentions into action. Daily planning helps you feel confident that what you’re doing each day is what you actually want to be doing. It's also a chance to course-correct when things inevitably don’t go as planned (see this week’s comic below 🙃).
One of our most popular articles of all time is a guide to planning your day in a way that sets you up for feeling accomplished rather than frustrated.
4. Ending Your Workday
Fadeke mentioned the work shutdown ritual in last week’s newsletter, but it’s such a powerful and overlooked piece of advice that I think it’s worth highlighting again. Completing your work shutdown ritual is a physical and mental transition from work time into the rest of your day. It’s a way of telling your brain it can stop worrying about work.
Your work shutdown ritual doesn’t need to be complicated. I end every workday by tidying up my desktops (physical and digital), completing any tasks I got done that day, and postponing anything I didn’t accomplish to later in the week. Seeing “Todoist Zero” is the physical trigger my brain needs to trust that everything is accounted for.
I wrote about the importance of having a work shutdown ritual several years ago, including several ideas for what you might want to include in yours.
When it comes to productivity, it's tempting to focus on doing more faster (let's be real, I love a good productivity hack as much as the next person). But sometimes the most productive thing you can do is slow down and reconnect with why you want to be more productive in the first place. These four rituals are a great place to start.
Productively,
Becky and the Doist team
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Ambition & Balance
