If you finish the day with too many pending tasks, you're not alone: you're also accompanied by unanswered emails, postponed calls, and meetings due the day after tomorrow. And sooner or later, that takes its toll on your health, your work, and your team
SANTO DOMINGO. – Since last week the skies over the country have been partly cloudy, in some places it has rained, but in general, the heat has hit differently and there is a kind of heaviness in the atmosphere that is difficult to explain.
It's the Saharan dust cloud, approximately 6,890 kilometers long—about a hundred times the size of the Dominican Republic—that covers the island and remains connected to Africa. The phenomenon is creating a drier environment, hazy skies, and a significant increase in the perceived temperature across much of the country, expected to last almost the entire week, according to forecasts.
The heat, the heavy air, the inability to see the blue sky, create a very particular, oppressive feeling: the hours drag on and it seems the day never quite ends, never truly closes. And to all that, we must add the way we finish our workdays. It's not all the Saharan dust's fault.
The mind also has its dust cloud
Think of it this way: just as Saharan dust covers the sky, preventing a breeze or heavy rain, unfinished work matters linger in your mind. The call you didn't make, the email you left unread, the conversation you postponed. Invisible particles that accumulate, and it has a scientific name.
In the 1920s, Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik discovered something that seems obvious today but that few of us actually apply: the brain keeps "open files" for unfinished business, and the mental tension generated by an incomplete task captures our attention and makes us return to it, even though we would prefer to move on to something else. In other words, the brain doesn't rest until it feels it has closed that matter.
The result is that all-too-familiar state: you get home, sit down to dinner, and mentally you're still at the office. You watch a show and keep checking your phone. You go to bed and start going over the list of things you left unfinished.
Tasks left unfinished at the end of the day not only take up mental space, they can induce a cycle of worries and negative emotions that significantly disrupts sleep, and it's not just a personal problem.
A survey conducted by Asana, one of the world's most popular work management platforms that allows teams to organize projects and track tasks, found that 71% of workers felt burned out, citing constant switching between tasks and incomplete work as the main culprits.
More than seven out of ten people reach the end of the day without having fully completed anything.
A final touch to the workday
Cal Newport, a professor at Georgetown University and author of Deep Work, proposes something so simple it seems too simple to work: creating a daily closing ritual.
And it's not about turning off the computer and running away. It's a brief, deliberate moment to tell your brain: that's it for today.
Her own ritual includes one last check of her inbox, checking the calendar for the next few days, and noting any pending reminders.
Newport indicates that the key is to end the feeling that everything is under control and that there is nothing urgent left to resolve that night.
And as a final gesture, he recommends a symbolic closing action, something as simple as intentionally closing the laptop, or saying aloud a phrase that marks the end of the workday.
Newport uses: “Checked, closed, done.” You can make up your own.
Why does it work? Because it's not magic, it's basic neuroscience.
The ritual gives the brain evidence that everything has been captured and planned, thus reducing nighttime anxiety and repetitive thoughts. The file is closed, not half-open.
What your team earns
This habit doesn't just benefit you. When leaders and professionals in a company develop closing rituals, they are building something bigger: a culture that distinguishes between work time and life time.
Studies in organizational psychology regularly show that employees who maintain clear boundaries between work and personal life report greater job satisfaction, less burnout, and better overall performance.
A team that knows how to close out the day is a team that arrives the next day in top form.
Like Saharan dust, work-related tasks travel on their own, uninvited, and creep into your evenings and weekends. The good news is that, unlike the weather phenomenon, you can actually stop this one.
Five minutes at the end of each day. A quick review, a plan for tomorrow, a closing signal.
It's that simple. When do you start?
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