Practice / start small

One block
is a start.

These are our exercises inspired by Newport's teaching. Try one today and adjust it to your responsibilities.

No sign-up. The checklists remember your ticks in this browser only, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Pick the next meaningful task

Sort each task into a pile, then choose one from “Needs focus” to work on next. There is no answer key, and you know your day better than we do.

To sort

Outline the report’s argument
Reply to the group chat
Solve the two hardest problems in the set
Rename and file last month’s photos
Book a dentist appointment
Read one paper closely and take notes

Needs focus

Batch it

Not today

Protect one block

This morning has a fixed meeting at 11:00 and three small jobs scattered around it. Drag the 90-minute focus block onto the calendar, or pick a start time, and watch the small jobs move into the gaps.

Protected focus 90 minutes Drag onto the morning, or choose a start time on the calendar.

Right now no free stretch is longer than 30 minutes. Where would 90 minutes fit?

Prepare the environment

Before a focus block, set up the space. Keep the items that help and add your own. This list remembers your ticks in this browser.

Close tabs and apps you won’t need
Put the phone in a drawer or another room
Open the notes, files or tools for this task
Get water or coffee before you start
Tell someone when you’ll be reachable again, if your role allows it
Write the block’s end time where you can see it

Ready when you are. Start the block.

Saved on this browser only.

Handle the unexpected meeting

A small game with no way to lose. Your plan is set, then a call arrives. Choose a response and watch the rest of the day redraw itself.

Here is today's plan: the report from 09:00, messages at 10:30, lunch, slides, an hour of flexible time and a shutdown at 16:30. Press the button when you're ready for a surprise.

Read all three outcomes

You finished the first hour of the report. Its last half hour moved to 15:00, the flexible time shrank to make room, and messages slid to 11:00. The day still ends on time.

You stopped the report at a sensible point and wrote the rest into tomorrow. That counts as a revision too, and the afternoon keeps its slack for anything else that comes up.

You offered 15:00 and the call moved into your flexible hour. Some roles allow this and some don't. If yours doesn't, the other two responses still work.

Finish with a shutdown checklist

Review loose ends, write down the next action, check tomorrow's commitments and close your workday. “Shutdown” is a term used in Newport's Deep Work; this checklist is our adaptation.

Check email and messages once more for anything that can’t wait
Write the next step for each unfinished task
Look at tomorrow’s calendar
Glance at the rest of the week
Sketch a rough first block for tomorrow

Ticks are saved on this browser for today and clear tomorrow.

Your calendar draft is saved separately in the planner, also only in this browser.