A
Deep work
Single-task, focused effort on work that requires sustained thinking, such as writing, analysis, or design.
A closer look
The weekly attention audit, explained in full
This page describes the self-observation method taught in Session 1 and used throughout the thirty-day challenge. It is a logging practice, not a diagnostic tool, and it does not require any special software.
Why log at all
Most people underestimate how much of the day goes to email and chat
A guess about where the week went tends to be shaped by what felt significant, not by what actually took the most time. A short daily log corrects for that gap. It does not need to be precise to the minute. It needs to be consistent enough across a week to reveal a pattern.
Participants keep this log for the full thirty days of the challenge, reviewing it briefly at the end of each week during the live sessions and independently afterward.
The categories
Four broad buckets, logged in rough time blocks
The categories are intentionally broad. The goal is a usable weekly picture, not an exhaustive time-and-motion study.
B
Meetings
Any scheduled call or in-person meeting, logged regardless of whether it felt necessary at the time.
C
Communication
Time spent in email, Slack, or similar tools, including both batched review windows and unplanned checking.
D
Recovery and transition
Time spent re-orienting after an interruption or switching between unrelated tasks, logged as its own line rather than folded into other categories.
How to log it
A short entry, a few times a day
The method taught in the workshop uses three short check-in points rather than continuous tracking, which tends to become its own distraction.
Midday check
A quick note of how the morning split across the four categories, written from memory rather than a stopwatch.
End of day check
The same note for the afternoon, plus one line on what pulled focus away most.
Weekly total
Rough hours added up per category for the week, compared against what you expected before the week began.
One adjustment
A single change to try the following week, rather than a long list of fixes at once.
A note on scope
This is a self-observation practice, not a productivity score
The audit is meant to inform your own decisions about scheduling and communication habits. It is not a measurement tool for evaluating performance, and it produces no numeric score. The workshop presents it as a way of seeing your week more clearly, so any changes you make afterward are based on what actually happened rather than on impression alone.
See how this fits into Session 1