This is a common recommendation for writers and across productivity guides. Ernest Hemingway and Roald Dahl both recommended it.. The idea is to stop when when

This is a common recommendation for writers and across productivity guides. Ernest Hemingway and Roald Dahl both recommended it.. The idea is to stop when when you know what you'll be doing next. Maybe write a short note to yourself as a sort of place marker. There are at least two advantages to this. First, when you pick it up at your next work session, you can jump right back into your flow, or at least have a better chance of re-achieving flow. Second, cognitive researchers discovered the brain is less likely to forget if the task is left unfinished. Overnight, or between work sessions, the various parts of the brain will maintain some task awareness. My recommendation is to not work right up to a hard stop. Look at the clock (or have a reminder) half an hour before the hard stop, then take the next 20 minutes to outline the next steps and properly suspend the tasks. Another way of putting this is, "never keep working until you have to stop because you don't know what to do next". On the rare occasions you mention of being in the zone and enjoying it it's acceptable to continue working beyond the time limit, but it's still best to stop at a point where the next step is clear in your mind. You'll find that instead of spending 20 minutes trying to come up to speed on what to do next, the next work session will start smoothly. This works for programming, too. When I have a green build and know my next task, I can commit and go to lunch or go home for the day, then continue when I get back. https://www.fastcompany.com/90907757/train-brain-into-flow https://www.fastcompany.com/90907757/train-brain-into-flow