Working from home, shifts, the self-employed, real emergencies, a bad patch, a partner who does it too, and living alone

The method assumes a job with an end time, a way home, and people at the other end of it. Some of that's missing for a lot of readers. Here's what changes.

Working from home. There's no drive, so the crossing has to be built from nothing. I'd build it out of three things. A place, so that work happens somewhere and the evening happens somewhere else, even if it's the same room and the difference is which chair. A last ten that ends with the laptop closed and put away out of sight, in a drawer or a bag, not shut on the table. And a walk, ten minutes round the block at the end of the day, which is the commute you don't have and does the job of one. Without a marker, home working has no crossing at all, and the passenger doesn't need to get in the car because it never left the kitchen.

Shift work. The last ten works at any hour. The crossing is harder after nights, because you're going home to sleep and the passenger rides along into bed. I'd keep the last line and the marker and be gentler about the evening, which isn't an evening. The earlier book Nothing gets solved at three in the morning is useful for the bit where you're lying there.

The self-employed. There's nobody to leave, and the loops are all yours, so the last ten matters more, not less. Give yourself a clock-off time and treat it as a client's. The booked half hour from chapter 12 will get more use than for most readers, and that's fine as long as it's booked.

Real emergencies. If your job has them, a patient, a system, a deal, then reachability is real. Make it specific. A phone that rings for the one kind of thing, not an inbox that might contain anything. The difference between being on call for emergencies and being on call for the inbox is the difference between an evening with a phone in it and no evening at all.

A bad patch. Some weeks the passenger is heavy because the situation is. If it's a hard project, the tools will get you part of the evening and that's worth having. If it's more than that, if you're being bullied, ACAS describes bullying as unwanted behaviour that's offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting, or a misuse of power that undermines or humiliates, and gives examples including constant criticism and being deliberately given a heavier load than everyone else. That's not a habit to fix in the last ten. Their advice pages are where to start. The NHS lists the symptoms of stress, and they include being irritable and snappy, difficulty concentrating, constant worry and sleeping too much or too little, and says to talk to a GP if it's affecting your life. If you've felt low most of the day, most days, for weeks, and it's interfering with work, home and the things you used to enjoy, the NHS describes that as depression and says to see a GP. Do that first.

A partner who does it too. Two people at the desk at the same table is a quiet house. Share the rule. The sentence at the door works both ways, and a pair of last lines is easier to keep than one.

Living alone. The leftovers go to nobody, which can make the habit feel harmless. It isn't, because the person getting the leftovers is you. Chapter 15 was about that. The crossing and the evening matter as much, and the social part of the evening, a call, a friend, matters more, because nobody's at the table to make it happen by accident.