claude-skills/productivity/deep-work

deep-work — Time-Block the Day, Budget the Shallow

Plan a deep work day the Cal Newport way. Attention is the protected resource, not time.

/deep-work turns a raw task list into a time-blocked day: every task classified deep vs shallow, the shallow share audited against a budget, deep blocks of at least 90 minutes placed in the earliest hours under a hard 4-hour ceiling, shallow work batched into at most two windows, and the day closed with a shutdown ritual. A local ledger tracks weekly deep hours and streaks.

The discipline

Rule	Enforced by
Shallow work gets a budget (default 50%) before anything is scheduled	shallow_work_auditor.py — OVER-BUDGET exits 2
Deep blocks: ≥90 minutes, earliest hours, energy-first	time_block_planner.py
Deep demand past 4 hours is refused, naming what to defer	time_block_planner.py — exit 2
Shallow work: at most two batches (late morning + end of day)	time_block_planner.py
10-minute buffers drain attention residue between blocks	time_block_planner.py
The hard stop never silently extends — overflow is refused by name	time_block_planner.py — exit 2
Deep hours are measured, not felt	focus_session_logger.py — status / streak
The day ends with a shutdown ritual, not a fade-out	assets/shutdown_checklist.md

Quick start

# 1. Audit the task list — deep vs shallow, share vs budget
python skills/deep-work/scripts/shallow_work_auditor.py --sample

# 2. Build the time-blocked day (refuses >4h deep, refuses overflow)
python skills/deep-work/scripts/time_block_planner.py --sample

# 3. Log real focus sessions; check the weekly target and streak
python skills/deep-work/scripts/focus_session_logger.py log --minutes 90 --label "Write spec"
python skills/deep-work/scripts/focus_session_logger.py status --target 15

Or just say "plan my deep work day: …", run /cs:deep-work (full workflow), or /cs:time-block (quick plan from a task list).

What's in the box

• Skill: skills/deep-work/SKILL.md
• Agent: agents/cs-deep-work.md
• Commands: commands/cs-deep-work.md — /cs:deep-work; commands/cs-time-block.md — /cs:time-block
• 3 stdlib scripts: shallow_work_auditor.py, time_block_planner.py, focus_session_logger.py
• 3 references (6-7 sources each: Newport, Leroy, Mark, Ericsson, Csikszentmihalyi, Graham, Gollwitzer, Eyal, Parkinson, Zeigarnik, Masicampo & Baumeister, Perlow, RescueTime, Atlassian), 2 assets (worked example day + shutdown-ritual checklist)

Not the same as

• productivity/andreessen — the 3x5 card picks WHAT matters today. Deep-work plans WHEN and HOW, with attention protected. Run the card first, then block the day here.
• project-management capacity planning — team-level capacity and sprint math. This is one person's attention across one day and one week.
• productivity/reflect — end-of-week reflection prose. The shutdown ritual here is a daily, mechanical close.

License

MIT.