Top 17 'Clock-Out-and-Close-Down' Productivity Hacks to try for remote workers who struggle to unplug this year - Goh Ling Yong
The glow of your laptop screen is the new office fluorescent light, and it never seems to turn off. For many remote workers, the promise of flexibility has morphed into a reality of being "always on." The physical boundary between work and home has vanished, and the mental one is crumbling fast. That "one last email" at 8 PM turns into an hour of work, and suddenly your living room feels less like a sanctuary and more like a satellite office.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. The biggest challenge of remote work isn't finding a good Wi-Fi signal; it's learning how to disconnect. Without the physical act of leaving an office, our brains struggle to transition from "work mode" to "life mode." This digital leash can lead to chronic stress, decreased productivity, and full-blown burnout. The solution isn't to work harder, but to build a better wall between your professional and personal self.
That's where a "clock-out-and-close-down" ritual comes in. It's a series of deliberate actions that signal to your brain, "The workday is officially over." Think of it as a reverse morning routine designed to decompress, disconnect, and reclaim your evenings. Here are 17 powerful hacks to help you build your own shutdown ritual and finally unplug this year.
1. Create a "Work Only" Browser Profile
The lines blur when your work tabs (Asana, Slack, Gmail) are nestled right next to your personal tabs (YouTube, social media, online shopping). The easiest way to create a digital boundary is to separate them completely. Most browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, allow you to create different user profiles, each with its own bookmarks, history, and logged-in accounts.
Create one profile specifically for work and another for personal use. During the workday, live entirely within your "Work" profile. When it's time to clock out, don't just close the tabs—close the entire browser window. This simple act is surprisingly powerful. It’s the digital equivalent of packing up your briefcase. Then, you can open your "Personal" browser guilt-free, knowing no work notifications will pop up.
2. The Fake Commute
The daily commute, for all its frustrations, served a vital psychological purpose: it created a buffer between your work life and home life. When you work from home, that buffer is gone. So, you need to create a new one. This is the "fake commute."
At the end of your designated workday, get up and leave your house. It doesn't have to be long. A 15-minute walk around the block, a quick drive to grab a coffee, or even just sitting on your porch for ten minutes can do the trick. The key is to physically change your environment. This act of leaving and returning helps your brain "commute" from one role to the next, making the transition feel real and definitive.
3. Change Your Outfit
Working in your pajamas is a well-known perk of remote work, but it can also be a trap. If you wear the same clothes for work, relaxation, and sleep, your brain never gets a clear signal that the context has changed. A simple "costume change" can make a world of difference.
You don't need to wear a suit during the day. Simply have a set of "work clothes" (even if it's just a specific t-shirt and joggers) and a separate set of "lounge clothes." The physical act of changing out of your work attire at the end of the day is a powerful cue that you are no longer "on the clock." It tells your body and mind that it's time to relax and shift gears.
4. Perform a "Brain Dump"
One of the main reasons we struggle to unplug is the fear of forgetting something important. Lingering to-do items, brilliant ideas, and worries about tomorrow's meeting can swirl in your head all evening. The solution is to get them out. For the last five minutes of your workday, perform a "brain dump."
Grab a notebook or open a digital doc and write down everything—and I mean everything—that's on your mind related to work. Tasks for tomorrow, reminders to follow up, random ideas, and anxieties. Once it's on paper (or screen), you give your brain permission to let it go for the night, confident that it's captured and waiting for you in the morning.
5. Tidy Your Workspace for Tomorrow-You
Imagine starting your day at a cluttered desk with yesterday's coffee mug and a mess of papers. It’s an instant dose of stress. Now, imagine starting at a clean, organized desk, ready for a fresh start. The latter is a gift you can give your future self.
Make tidying your workspace the final task of your day. Spend 5-10 minutes clearing your desk, organizing papers, wiping down the surface, and arranging your keyboard and mouse neatly. This small act of closure not only makes for a more pleasant morning but also reinforces the end of the day. A clean desk signifies a closed chapter.
6. Put Your Tech to Bed
Out of sight, out of mind. This is especially true for your work laptop. If your computer is sitting open on the dining table all evening, it's a constant, tempting visual reminder of work. The best practice is to have a dedicated place to store it when the day is done.
Shut it down completely—don't just put it to sleep. Then, put it away. This could be in a drawer, a cabinet, a closet, or a laptop bag. The physical act of putting your primary work tool away is a powerful psychological barrier. It makes it much harder to impulsively check "one little thing" later in the evening.
7. The Hard-Stop Alarm
It's easy to let 5:00 PM bleed into 5:30 PM, then 6:00 PM, and so on. To combat this, set a hard-stop alarm on your phone or computer for the end of your workday. Don't just label it "End of Day"—give it a fun, firm name like "Pencils Down!" or "You're Done, Go Live!"
When that alarm goes off, honor it. Don't hit snooze. Stop what you are doing, mid-sentence if you have to. Save your work and begin your shutdown ritual immediately. This trains your brain to respect the boundary you've set, turning your intended finish time into a non-negotiable deadline.
8. Schedule Your Last Hour Strategically
The last hour of the workday is often the least productive. We're tired, our focus wanes, and we're prone to either procrastinating or getting sucked into a new, complex task we can't possibly finish. Instead, be intentional with that final hour.
Use it for low-energy, administrative tasks. Clean out your inbox, plan your to-do list for the next day, fill out your timesheet, or organize your digital files. This not only winds down your brain but also sets you up for a successful start tomorrow. Ending the day with a sense of completion, rather than in the middle of a crisis, makes it much easier to disconnect. Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we're huge advocates for this kind of proactive planning to reduce work-related anxiety.
9. Mute All Work Notifications on Your Phone
Your work phone apps—Slack, Teams, Outlook, Gmail—are the biggest culprits in destroying work-life balance. A single notification buzz can pull you right back into work mode, even if you're in the middle of dinner with your family.
At the end of your workday, be ruthless. Mute all notifications from work-related apps. Better yet, move them all into a single "Work" folder on your phone and hide it on your last home screen. This adds a layer of friction. You have to actively seek out work, rather than letting it interrupt you. If your job truly requires you to be on-call for emergencies, work with your manager to establish a specific channel (like a phone call) for true emergencies only.
10. Change the Ambiance
Your home office environment can also be a powerful trigger. If the lighting, sounds, and even smells are the same all day and night, it's hard to feel a shift. Use sensory cues to signal the transition from work to relaxation.
If you work with bright overhead lighting, switch to a warm, soft lamp in the evening. If you listen to focus-enhancing electronic music while you work, switch to a relaxing playlist, a podcast, or even silence. You could also light a candle or use an essential oil diffuser with a calming scent like lavender or chamomile. Changing the sensory input of your space helps signal to your brain that the function of that space has changed.
11. Schedule a Post-Work Anchor Activity
One of the best ways to ensure you stop working is to have something else you have to do. Schedule a "hard-stop" activity immediately after your workday ends. This creates a commitment that forces you to unplug.
This could be a fitness class, a non-negotiable dinner time with your family, a scheduled phone call with a friend, or a reservation at a restaurant. When you know you have somewhere to be or someone waiting for you, it's much harder to justify "five more minutes" of work. It acts as an external anchor, pulling you away from your desk and into your personal life.
12. Use a Verbal Shutdown Cue
This might feel silly at first, but it’s a surprisingly effective psychological trick used by many high-performers. As you perform the final action of your workday (like shutting down your laptop), say a specific phrase out loud.
It could be something as simple as, "And... we are closed," "Shutdown complete," or "Time to be present." The act of speaking solidifies the intention in your mind. It’s an audible confirmation that the workday is over, adding another layer of finality to your shutdown ritual.
13. Practice a One-Minute Work Gratitude
It can be hard to disconnect when you're dwelling on the frustrations of the day. A difficult client, a buggy piece of software, or an annoying meeting can replay in your head for hours. Counteract this by ending your day with a moment of positive reflection.
Before you fully close down, take just 60 seconds to identify one positive thing that happened during your workday. Did a colleague give you a compliment? Did you solve a tricky problem? Did you get positive feedback on a project? Focusing on a small win, no matter how minor, helps you end the day on a high note and frame your work in a more positive light, making it easier to leave it behind.
14. Master the "Send Later" Function
How many times has a brilliant work idea struck you at 9 PM? Your instinct is to immediately fire off an email or a Slack message. The problem is, this not only pulls you back into work mode but can also pull your colleagues in, creating a culture of after-hours communication.
Embrace the "Schedule Send" or "Send Later" feature in your email and messaging apps. When that great idea strikes, write it out, but schedule it to be sent at 8:30 AM the next morning. You get the idea out of your head without disrupting your evening or anyone else's. This is a game-changer for respecting your own boundaries and those of your team.
15. The "Third Space" Transition
For those who have the flexibility, the "Third Space" can be an incredibly effective tool. A "Third Space" is a neutral location that is neither work nor home, like a coffee shop, a library, or a co-working space.
Try spending the last 60-90 minutes of your workday at a Third Space. When your workday is over, you pack up and leave that location to go home. This re-introduces the physical act of "leaving work" that is so critical for a mental transition. The journey from the coffee shop back to your house becomes your commute, giving you that much-needed buffer.
16. Review and Plan for Tomorrow
Anxiety about the next day is a huge reason we stay mentally tethered to work. We worry about what we need to do, fearing we'll be unprepared. The antidote to this is a quick, 10-minute planning session as the very last thing you do.
Look at your calendar for tomorrow and identify your top 1-3 priorities. Write them down. This simple act provides a sense of control and clarity. You close your laptop not with a vague sense of dread, but with a clear, actionable plan. You can relax knowing that "Tomorrow-You" is already set up for success.
17. The Digital Sunset
Just as the sun sets on the day, you need a "digital sunset" for your work life. This is a pre-determined time in the evening—say, 8:00 PM—after which you do not engage with any work-related digital content. Period.
This means no checking email on your phone, no scrolling through work-related social media, and no reading industry articles. This hard rule is crucial for protecting your deep relaxation time and ensuring you get quality rest. Let your mind truly detach from professional responsibilities so it can recharge for the next day. It's about drawing a final, non-negotiable line in the sand.
It's Time to Reclaim Your Evenings
Building a "clock-out-and-close-down" ritual isn't about adding more tasks to your day; it's about creating intentional habits that protect your most valuable asset: your time and mental well-being. The blurred lines of remote work are a modern challenge, but with deliberate action, you can regain control and build a healthier, more sustainable relationship with your job.
You don't need to implement all 17 of these hacks at once. Start by picking two or three that resonate with you and commit to practicing them every day for the next two weeks. Notice how you feel. We at Goh Ling Yong believe that small, consistent changes are the key to long-term success and preventing burnout. Soon, you'll find that closing your laptop at the end of the day feels less like a suggestion and more like a satisfying, definitive end.
What's your number one tip for unplugging after a day of remote work? Share your go-to shutdown hack in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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