A short Heroic Plus One podcast episode (Brian Johnson) that links Steven Pressfield’s advice—"The office is closed"—to Cal Newport’s "shutdown complete" concept. Johnson recommends ritualizing an end-of-day shutdown (no work thoughts, no after-dinner email), preparing the desk for the next day, and protecting family time to support recovery and high performance.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic plus one. Steven Pressfield is one of my all time favorite writers. In addition to being a brilliant writer of both fiction and nonfiction, he's a good human being. You can feel his wisdom and humility and realness. And with every word he writes, we featured six of his brilliant books on the creative process including the War of Art, do the Work Turning Pro, Nobody wants to read your Poop, the Artist Journey and his most recent book, Put yout Butt where your Heart Wants to Be. Check out all those notes. If you want to learn more about how I approach the creative process, you can Also check out Creativity 101 and the collection of notes we have on the subject line linked in this plus one Now. As you know, if you're familiar with Pressfield and his style, his books are both inspiring and beautifully pithy. By the way, I just looked up that word. Yep, his books are the very definition of pithy, which means concise and forcefully expressive. I read his latest book in an hour and 15 minutes. Boom. Now today I want to connect a big idea from his latest book to my number three work Target. Shutdown complete. As you know, if you've been following along, shutdown complete is a Cal Newport inspired idea. In Deep work, he tells us, and I quote, at the end of the workday, shut down your consideration of work issues until the next morning. No after dinner email check, no mental replays of conversations and no scheming about how you'll handle an upcoming challenge. Shut down work thinking completely if you need more time than extend your workday. But once you shut down, your mind must be left free. And he says, when you work, work hard. When you're done, be done. To ritualize this process as he shuts down everything for the night, he says, shut down complete. And that's exactly what I do is I shut down for the day and get my desk in a ready state for the next morning. Which by the way, is another one of my work targets. Desk in ready state. Target swipe. Now Pressfield captures the same sentiment in his latest book. He tells us, and I quote, when I finish the day's work, I turn my mind off. The office is closed. The work has been handed off to the unconscious, to the muse. I respect her. I give her the time. If I see family or friends I never talk about what I'm working on. I politely deflect any queries. But beyond not talking with others, I refuse to talk to myself. I don't obsess, I don't worry. I don't second guess. The office is closed and that's today's plus one. When you work, work. When you're done with work, be done. The office is closed. Turn your brain off as you transition from work to love and give yourself the best shot at both enjoying your family and training your recovery so you can show up with heroic energy and do it all again at the highest possible levels tomorrow. Target Swipe Shutdown complete. Target swipe Desk in ready state. Target swipe. Let's go hero.
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