Deep Work — Time-Block the Day, Budget the Shallow
This skill turns a raw task list into a time-blocked day that protects deep focus: it classifies tasks as deep or shallow, builds an energy-first schedule with deep blocks in the morning and shallow work batched into at most two windows, enforces a 4-hour daily deep-work ceiling, and logs focus sessions against a weekly target. It produces a concrete daily plan and a ledger of focus sessions, with scripts that enforce the rules.
✨ What it does
- Classifies tasks as deep or shallow using keyword heuristics and explicit :deep/:shallow suffixes.
- Builds an energy-first schedule with deep blocks of at least 90 minutes placed earliest, and shallow work batched into a
- Refuses to schedule more than 4 hours of deep work per day, naming what to defer.
- Refuses shallow overflow past the day's hard end time, naming what to drop.
- Logs focus sessions and reports weekly hours vs target and consecutive-day streaks.
- Provides a shutdown checklist to close the day.
🎯 When to use it
- When you want to plan a deep work day or time-block your calendar or task list.
- When you need to budget or cut shallow work to protect focus hours.
- When you want to track deep-work sessions and streaks against a weekly target.
- When you need an end-of-day shutdown ritual to close open loops.
🚀 How to use
Trigger with a request like "/deep-work" or "/time-block", or describe wanting to plan a deep work day. Provide today's task list with rough minutes per task (e.g., "Write report:90"), and optionally mark tasks as deep or shallow with a suffix. The skill runs three scripts: shallow_work_auditor.py to classify and check the shallow budget, time_block_planner.py to build the schedule, and focus_session_logger.py to log sessions and check status. Example prompts:
/deep-work Write investor update:60, Email triage:45, Analyze churn cohort:90:deep
Plan my day: 09:00-17:00, lunch at 12:30, tasks: spec writing 120 deep, email 30 shallow
📄 Output: A time-blocked daily plan (as a schedule output) and a JSON ledger of focus sessions with weekly status and streak counts.
📦 Add this skill to Claude Code
# 1. Get the skills repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills /tmp/claude-skills
# 2. Copy this skill into your project (or ~/.claude/skills for all projects)
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/claude-skills/productivity/deep-work/skills/deep-work .claude/skills/deep-workSkill source: productivity/deep-work/skills/deep-work/SKILL.md
⚠️ Good to know
Requires a task list with rough time estimates; the skill assumes a single person's attention and does not handle team capacity planning.
❓ FAQ
What happens if I have more than 4 hours of deep work?
The planner refuses to schedule past the 4-hour ceiling and names which tasks to defer to another day.
How does the skill decide if a task is deep or shallow?
It uses keyword heuristics, but an explicit ':deep' or ':shallow' suffix on a task always overrides the heuristic.
Can I track my deep work over the week?
Yes, the focus session logger records each session and lets you check weekly hours against a target (default 15) and your consecutive-day streak.
🤖 Overview, features, install steps and FAQ were generated from the project's SKILL.md on Sep 4, 2026. Always check the original source before running commands.