Free project template
Deep work schedule with every task dated from the day you start
Book focused hours for hard work, prepare the night before, protect the block and review what it produced.
- 4 sections
- 13 tasks
- Opens as a list
- Dated from day 1
Deep work
Days count from the day you start. In the app, pick a start or a finish date and each task lands on a real day.
Set up
- Pick the one or two pieces of work that need deep focusDay 1High
- Block the hours in your calendar and mark them busyDay 1
- Tell your team when you are offline and how to reach you if it is urgentDay 2
The blocks
- Monday: two hours on the hardest pieceEvery Monday 9:00
- Tuesday: carry on where Monday stoppedEvery Tuesday 9:00
- Thursday: two hours, no email openEvery Thursday 9:00
- Friday: ninety minutes to finish or hand overEvery Friday 9:00
Before each block
- Write tomorrow's block goal in one sentenceEvery workday 17:30
- Open the files you need and close everything else
- Phone on silent and in another room
Weekly review
- Count the blocks you kept and the ones you lostEvery Friday 16:00
- Note what each block producedEvery Friday 16:00
- Fix the thing that broke the lost blocksEvery Friday 16:00
About this template
Hard work, like writing a proposal, building a model or planning a quarter, needs hours without messages. Those hours only happen if they are booked like meetings and defended.
The project books four blocks a week with a clear prep step before each and a short weekly review of what the blocks actually produced.
Tips from the template
- Move the blocks to your sharpest hours; for most people that is the morning.
- Write the goal of each block in its description the day before.
- If a block keeps getting cancelled, move it rather than drop it.
How to use it in ActivityTracker
- 1Open Tasks and choose Templates.
- 2Find Deep work blocks and open it. You see every section and task before anything is added.
- 3Pick the day you start, or the day it has to be done by. Every date moves with it.
- 4Press Use template. Rename the project, then work down the list.
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5 sections, 24 tasks
Questions
Run it with the dates filled in.
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