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The long version: Deep work block

Where the claim comes from

Cal Newport's Deep Work gave it the name in 2016. Paul Graham's "maker's schedule, manager's schedule" essay made the case a decade earlier: makers need long uninterrupted blocks, and one meeting in the middle ruins the whole afternoon. The internet version is "four hours of real focus beats a twelve-hour day of busy", which is the version I am testing.
This is the reason the experiment exists. I have already proven I can look better. I have never proven I can do the work, and every other habit on the wall is here to find out whether it helps or hurts this block.

What I am actually testing

Whether a protected block, first thing after the run and the sit, before the phone comes on, reliably produces four honest hours a day, and whether the rest of the wall (early wake, cardio, meditation, no scroll) makes those hours better or eats the energy they need.

What the research says, as far as I have read

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These are pointers I am checking, not proof. Nothing gets quoted on camera until I have read it properly.
  • Switching tasks leaves "attention residue": part of your mind stays on the last thing and the next task suffers (Leroy, 2009, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes). This is the argument for one task on paper before the block starts, and nothing else.
  • Gloria Mark's work at UC Irvine on interruptions found that getting back to a task after being pulled off it takes on the order of twenty minutes. A phone in the room is an interruption waiting to happen.
  • In the original deliberate practice research, the best violinists topped out at around four hours of focused practice a day, and that ceiling has held up across fields (Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer, 1993, Psychological Review). Six is the stretch goal. Four is the actual target.

What would change my mind

  • KEEP if I hit four honest hours on at least 20 of 30 days and the rating for this block is higher on days the run and the sit happened.
  • COPE if the median is under two hours, or if editing keeps getting counted as deep work when it was really production.
  • KEEP, but modified if two blocks of two hours beat one block of four, which would change the whole shape of the day.

What to watch in the log

The difference between hours at the desk and hours of work. What happens to the block after a bad night. Whether the morning routine before it is too long.