milacraig•22h agoProlific Poster

Serious question, I saw my project completion rate jump from 60% to 90% after I started blocking out my mornings for deep work.

I tracked it for the last quarter and the only change was a strict 'no calls, no emails, no Slack' rule from 8 AM to noon, which made me actually finish things instead of just reacting to clients all day (has anyone else found a specific time block that works better than others?).

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nathan15h ago

Wow, but isn't that just common sense?

logan_ellis22h ago

I mean, that totally makes sense. I read something a while back about how the first few hours of your day are when your brain is best at that kind of focused work, before it gets tired from making a million small decisions. My afternoons are always a mess of meetings, so if I don't carve out that morning block, nothing real gets done. Maybe it's just me but I've found even a solid two hour chunk is way better than trying to squeeze in focus time between constant pings.

matthewmartin8h ago

Common sense" is a stretch. A lot of jobs don't let you just ignore clients for four hours. What if something urgent comes up at 9 AM? That rule would get me in real trouble. It sounds nice in theory, but for a lot of people, being that strict just isn't an option. The real trick is finding a way to focus when you're still expected to be available.