Scheduling Deep Work Sessions With Time Blocks

My potent deep work sessions start with clearly defining when I will knock them out and how long they will last. So, I block 90 minutes of time I can do every day. And this has varied during different seasons of my working life. In some periods, it was 3 hours. Other times, it was 20 minutes. But having that sacred block of time gives me a foundational "container" to move the needle. Then I work on one single task during that block. (This one is just as important as defining when I will work.) My deep work sessions are kind of like going to the gym. If your trainer were to call you randomly during the day and say "get to the gym, it's time to work out!" without telling you what you were going to do, you would never go. But when you know *exactly* what you're going to do & when you're going to do it, the sessions are more manageable. To wrap up the session: I plan the next morning's sacred block (rather than the night before). In the past, I used to: • Finish my morning session • Wait until the end of the day • And then plan what I would work on next But by then, I'd encounter dozens of shiny objects. (Which could steer the next day's deep work session in the wrong direction.) Plus, having any open loop in the background eats up a ton of cognitive bandwidth. So now, I plan the next day's block right when I finish in the morning. That way, the idea can percolate in the background all day. Then in the evening, I can brain-dump my thoughts and pick right back up the next day.