What are focus blocks?
A focus block is a fixed period reserved for one kind of work, protected from meetings and messages. Where a to-do list says what, a focus block says when and for how long, and it is defended rather than merely intended.
How long
Sixty to ninety minutes suits most demanding work: long enough to get properly into a problem, short enough to hold attention and to fit around other commitments. Two or three a day is a realistic ceiling for most people. Booking six produces a calendar that looks disciplined and a day that does not happen.
Making a block hold
- Put it in the calendar as a real commitment. An unbooked intention loses to the first meeting request.
- Name the task, not the category. "Focus" gets moved. "Draft Q3 forecast" gets defended.
- Decide the first action before it starts. Ten minutes deciding what to do is ten minutes gone.
- Close the interrupt channels for the duration. Not as a resolution, as a setting.
- Stop at the end. Running blocks together without a break makes the later ones progressively less useful.
Placing them
Put blocks where your attention is actually good, which for most people is earlier rather than later, and cluster meetings elsewhere so the remaining time is contiguous. Three separate free hours scattered across a day are worth considerably less than one unbroken stretch.
