5 secrets of deep work.

Block the time. 90 minutes.

Deep work goes in your calendar like a meeting. Pick one task, block 90 minutes for it and start a timer.

Cal Newport, who gave deep work its name, puts the ceiling at three to four hours a day. Two blocks is a good day.

The free Solve app plans your day in blocks of 25 to 90 minutes and runs the timer.

Put your phone in another room.

In a 2017 University of Texas study, people who left their phone in another room did better on working-memory tests than people who kept it on the desk, face down and silent.

Later studies found a smaller effect. It is still the cheapest change on this list.

Same sound, every time.

Headphones on is a signal that work has started. Pick music with no words in it.

Binaural beats go one step further: a slightly different tone in each ear. A 2023 review of the studies found mixed results for attention, so try them and keep what works for you.

The free Solve app has sixty instrumental tracks and a binaural engine at 6, 10 or 18 Hz.

One task. Park the rest.

When you switch tasks, part of your attention stays on the last one. The researcher Sophie Leroy named it attention residue.

Before a block, write one line on where you stopped the last thing. Then close its tab.

Lion’s Mane, with your first coffee.

Lion’s Mane is the mushroom people take for focus. Take two capsules as your first block starts, with your coffee. It has no caffeine.

Ours is a 10:1 extract of the fruiting body, with three lab reports you can open.