{"id":70084,"date":"2019-09-26T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T03:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=70084"},"modified":"2019-09-30T18:31:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T02:31:07","slug":"use-the-15-minute-checkout-to-save-time-and-your-sanity-at-work-and-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/use-the-15-minute-checkout-to-save-time-and-your-sanity-at-work-and-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Use the \u201815-Minute Checkout\u2019 to Save Time \u2014 and Your Sanity \u2014 at Work and in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\n\n\u201cIt is not enough to be busy,\u201d said Henry David Thoreau. \u201cSo are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?\u201d

Odds are you can relate, especially at work. You are ever busy, yet at the end of the day, you wonder what you really accomplished. Worse, the next morning, you arrive at your desk already overwhelmed. You feel unfocused and unsure of your priorities, or even with a master plan, you have trouble getting down to business. It\u2019s genuinely frustrating \u2014 and, by all means, I get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long ago, I was managing a rewarding yet highly demanding career as a military officer. At the same time, I was teaching philosophy at a university, pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy, and together with my wonderful wife, remodeling a house while, silly us, choosing to live in it. On top of that, I was (and still am) an incorrigible polymath and life tinkerer \u2014 never meeting an idea I didn\u2019t want to instantly understand, rework, or play around with incessantly. 

It was a lot to juggle, and pretty quickly I learned that I had to compartmentalize my many, diverse roles to do my best work in each one.

While my \u2018day job\u2019 in the military had a definite workday \u2014 a clear beginning and end \u2014 there were always emergencies and other unexpected, high-priority situations. That meant a lot was coming at me that wasn\u2019t on my already heaping to-do list.

At day\u2019s end, I desperately needed a way to evaluate what I had actually gotten done; what I still had to do; and what I could best do to easily pick up from where I left off in the morning. That way, I could truly leave work at work. I wouldn\u2019t mentally take it home or to school with me \u2014 where no one would win \u2014 yet wouldn\u2019t lose precious momentum the next workday either.

Enter the 15-minute checkout, a simple and easy daily routine that helped save my work \u2014 and my sanity. It also saved me at least an hour, and almost always more, every day.

Today, the \u2018checkout\u2019 is key to my success, along with the success of countless others. And I\u2019m certain it can help you, too.

At work, you won\u2019t bounce from meeting to meeting, project to project, without properly transitioning to the next thing. And in life, you\u2019ll stop rushing to transport the kids, make dinner, work out, run errands, or simply enjoy life without having really disengaged from work and leaving it behind you.

With the 15-minute checkout, you\u2019ll take a brief pause at the end of each workday to evaluate the day you just had and also set yourself up to successfully start anew the next day. It\u2019s a simple routine that, done consistently, will empower you to reject the everything-is-a-priority mindset so prevalent in today\u2019s workplace. At last, you\u2019ll be able to \u2018clock out\u2019 without worries or distractions.    

So how you do the 15-minute checkout? At the end of every workday, simply sit down, take a deep breath, and ask yourself three questions.

1. What did I accomplish? <\/strong>

When things come at you throughout the day, you probably don\u2019t add them to your daily to-do list. That means, even though you\u2019ve been working really hard all day, your to-do list shows little progress, with many of the original items still undone. You feel frustrated \u2014 and defeated.

By asking yourself this first question, you can take stock of all the things you actually did do. It shifts your focus away from what you didn\u2019t get done \u2014 and toward your many wins.

Life is a series of small steps, and if you don\u2019t celebrate the small wins, you won\u2019t be able to build up the energy and will to contend with bigger obstacles later.

2. Is there anything I need to do right now to be able to disengage?<\/strong>

The 15-minute checkout is designed to put a hard stop on your workday. It lets you truly disengage and come back fresh and focused in the morning.

This second question helps you deal with that nagging feeling you\u2019ve forgotten to do something. Check your inbox or to-do list one last time to catch anything that absolutely must get done today. Then ask yourself what would actually happen if it waited until tomorrow. If you\u2019re being honest with yourself, chances are it can.

This second question helps you deal with that nagging feeling you\u2019ve forgotten to do something. Check your inbox or to-do list one last time to catch anything that absolutely must happen today. Then ask yourself what would actually happen if it waited until tomorrow. If you\u2019re being honest with yourself, chances are it can.

Also, if you\u2019re stopping in the middle of a task or project, use the checkout to jot down a brief note about what needs to happen next. Such \u2018breadcrumbs\u2019 make it easier to get back into something later, and at the end of a long day, allow your mind to relax.

3. When do I need to do the things I didn\u2019t get done today?<\/strong>There might be a lot of things left on your to-do list, not to mention new stuff that came up during the day. But no matter what you\u2019re telling yourself, they don\u2019t necessarily have to happen tomorrow or even in the next few days. This third question, then, reaffirms that, and helps you clarify things realistically.

Yet rather than adding things to a to-do list \u2014 stirring up even-greater feelings of \u2018undoneness\u2019 \u2014 schedule those tasks into whatever app, planner, calendar, or other tool you like to use. Having a concrete plan for open issues or loose ends helps ease your mind and gives you permission to let go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, at this point,\u00a0you\u2019re probably thinking that the 15-minute checkout makes good\u00a0sense, and that\u00a0it could surely help you. But you might also be thinking that you don\u2019t\u00a0have 15\u00a0minutes to spare at the end of the day, especially when you could put that\u00a0time\u00a0to \u2018good use\u2019 on something else.

However, in all likelihood,\u00a0your end-of-day ritual is to do something more trivial \u2014 like\u00a0checking your social\u00a0media or chatting up coworkers \u2014 in order to mindlessly unwind.\u00a0In other words,\u00a0you\u2019re not seriously working or, for that matter, seriously unplugging.

My point? Do the\u00a015-minute checkout instead. At work and in life, you\u2019ll save time \u2014\u00a0and your sanity!\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Charlie Gilkey is an author, entrepreneur, philosopher, Army veteran, and renowned productivity expert. Founder of Productive Flourishing, Gilkey helps professional creatives, leaders, and changemakers take meaningful action on work that matters. His new book is “<\/em>Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done<\/em><\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt is not enough to be busy,\u201d said Henry David Thoreau. \u201cSo are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?\u201d Odds are you can relate, especially at work. You are ever busy, yet at the end of the day, you wonder what you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16725,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[9,17,30,7,6,39,36],"tags":[7325,4645,7322,7324,4634,7323,7363],"yoast_head":"\n15-Minute Checkout to Save Time and Your Sanity at Work and in Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/use-the-15-minute-checkout-to-save-time-and-your-sanity-at-work-and-in-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"15-Minute Checkout to Save Time and Your Sanity at Work and in Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIt is not enough to be busy,\u201d said Henry David Thoreau. \u201cSo are the ants. 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