A woman reading on a sofa by a window in the evening

A 21-day plan · Stress

Switch off in the evening

For evenings when work follows you home. At most three required habits to close the day, park the worries and let your body slow down.

Close your workday
Long-exhale breathing
Worry window
Walk outside after work
Batch your notifications

Download on the App Store GET IT ON Google Play

Run it in the By Day app on iPhone or Android.

For you if

You leave work, but work doesn't leave you.
Your evenings go on replaying today or rehearsing tomorrow.
You check email "just once more" after dinner.

You’ll need

Paper or a notes app.
A timer.

How you’ll know

Your 1-5 'switched off' ratings are higher than in your first days.
Work thoughts come up less after your switch-off time.
Your evenings feel like yours again.

What runs when

Days 1–21

Set-upChoose your switch-off time set-up, day 1
Close your workday required, days 1 to 21
Long-exhale breathing required, days 2 to 21
Worry window required, days 3 to 21
Walk outside after workoptional optional, day 4, day 6, day 9, day 11, day 13, day 16, day 18, day 20
Batch your notificationsoptional optional, day 8

Usually 3 required habits a day, never more than three. Day 1 is set-up: choose your switch-off time. Optional rows never count toward your results or a lifetime place.

Checkpoints

Day1
Set-up: choose your switch-off time. Set a reminder for it.
Day3
The worry window may feel odd. Keep it short, and at the same time each day.
Day7
Notice how often worries pop up after your switch-off time now, compared with day 1.
Day8
Week-one check-in: a short look back, then keep going or stop. Stopping never counts against you.
Day14
Compare your 1-5 ratings with your first days.
Day21
Decide what to keep. Closing the workday in writing and the breathing are the two to hold on to.

Why it works

Unfinished tasks keep nagging because your brain is trying not to forget them; writing them down with a time to pick them up lets you let go. Giving worries a set time and place stops them spilling across the whole evening. Slow breathing with a long breath out is one of the quickest ways to help your body calm down.

Short daily breathing practice lowers self-reported stress in trials, with small-to-moderate effects. Setting aside a worry period reduced daily worry in studies of people who worry a lot. Planning where and when you'll pick up unfinished work helps people detach from it in the evening, and batching notifications lowered stress in a field experiment. Most studies are short and many used students or young adults.Sources

Before you start

This is a wellness program, not therapy.
If worry feels hard to control on most days, or you've felt low or lost interest in things for 2 weeks or more, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional.
Feeling exhausted and cynical about your work most of the time is worth raising with a professional too.
If you have thoughts of harming yourself, contact a crisis line or emergency services now: call or text 988 in the US and Canada, or call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland.
Keep the breathing gentle: no breath-holding, and stop if you feel light-headed or dizzy.

Access

Now: Free, with every feature, during the open beta. No card, no end date yet.
A lifetime place: Finish your first full 21-day plan during the beta with at least 80% of its required habits done and, if fewer than 200 people have qualified before you, Explorer is yours for life straight away. Stopping early doesn’t count against you; the first plan you run to its end is the one that counts.
After the beta: One active plan, daily habits, mood, recaps and history stay free. Explorer, the paid tier, adds every plan and connected health readings.
Where: The By Day app on iPhone and Android, to run it and to look back.