Firebreak

A firebreak keeps a wildfire from jumping into fresh timber. My Friday firebreak does the same for work: it stops this week’s loose ends from igniting next week’s plans. I block two uninterrupted hours—no meetings, no Slack—to clear every inbox, capture lessons, and map Monday’s priorities. The ritual sounds strict; the freedom it buys on weekends and Monday mornings is priceless.

Process tasks and notes

I start with my task manager and Notion scratch pad. Anything ticked off but not marked done gets closed. Half-baked ideas either become scheduled tasks or are deleted— “maybe later” is future clutter.

Scan last week’s calendar

Every meeting hides actions. I skim each event, turn stray decisions into tasks, and archive the invite. Empty calendar, empty mind.

Empty Gmail

Quick replies (≤ 2 min) go out immediately. Anything bigger receives the Action label and is archived. By the end of the pass the inbox shows zero.

Send invoices

Unbilled work is free credit for the client. I raise invoices on the spot and fire them off. Five minutes now saves cash-flow stress later.

Clear WhatsApp

Voice notes, screenshots, client pings—all answered, forwarded, or muted until Monday. Personal chats can wait; business threads close.

At the sixty-minute mark every channel reads zero. No ember survives to smoulder over the weekend.

Complete the scorecard

A short Google Sheet tracks leads, demos, revenue, and deep-work hours. Trends appear only when numbers live side by side, so I log them before memories fade.

Review experiments

Open the experiments database, note early signals, and kill any test clearly flat. Dragging a zombie test for another week wastes traffic.

Write a weekly review

One Notion page: wins worth repeating, mistakes worth fixing, and a lesson I can teach the team. It takes ten minutes, costs nothing, and turns experience into repeatable playbooks.

Build next week’s sprint

I load the sprint board and slot the Top Three outcomes for each day. Everything else queues behind them. Lack of space means lack of capacity; tasks get postponed or delegated now, not under duress on Wednesday.

Block non-negotiables

Workouts, dog walks, and next Friday’s firebreak hit the calendar first. Health and future focus are not spare-time items; they are prerequisites for good work.

Monthly extras

During the last firebreak of the month I schedule date night, a family dinner, and drinks with friends. Personal time reserved in advance stops work creeping deeper into life.

With Monday’s calendar and task list locked, the following week starts in execute-mode, not improv-mode.

Two disciplined hours on Friday buy a calm weekend and a decisive Monday. Clear every inbox, reflect on wins and misses, and lay down next week’s roadmap. The firebreak keeps small sparks from becoming next week’s wildfires—and lets you clock out on Friday with zero guilt and a real sense of control.