Closing shift, mopping the floor alone after everyone’s gone: that’s when you hear your own plans out loud.

Work that occupies your hands and nothing else leaves your head free, which is why the last hour of a closing shift does more thinking than an evening at a desk. The plans you make there tend to be honest, since there is nobody to impress and no reason to inflate anything. Mopping does not care what you decide.

Take one real question into your next long shift on purpose. Whether to stay on the team, what to do about a friend, what next year should look like. Let it turn over while you work, and write down what you have by the time you lock up.