Desk Layout for a Twenty-Minute Evening Review

Evening review fails when the desk looks like the morning battlefield — three monitors still glowing, chat windows open, empty coffee cups marking time. I treat the review as a separate activity with a separate surface, even when it is the same physical desk.

At 18:30 I close trading platforms and lay out only four items: today’s printed chart at A4, the journal page for that session, a thin ruler for marking levels, and yesterday’s review notes clipped above the chart. Nothing else stays within arm’s reach. The phone goes in a drawer on silent.

The sequence is fixed. First I read yesterday’s note aloud — not in my head, aloud — so I hear whether it still makes sense. Then I mark entry, stop, and actual exit on today’s chart with a single colour for facts and a second colour for commentary. Only after the marks are done do I write the narrative paragraph. Writing first invites story-telling; marking first keeps me closer to what happened.

Twenty minutes is enough if the layout stays minimal. On days with multiple trades I print one chart per trade rather than squeezing thumbnails onto a single sheet. The extra paper cost is negligible compared to the clarity gained when Friday’s weekly review spreads across the table.