Protect focus time that actually survives the week — the block placement matched to real energy hours, the defense rules (what moves a block, what never), the entry ritual that beats the blank-stare start, and the honest sizing that stops 8-hour fantasy blocks.
SkillScore86Maintained
Automatic
◆Personal Assistant pack
Last verified 8/14/2026
What it changes
Passed 19 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 12 of 22 without it.
Without skill55%
With skill86%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
The task for the focus block must be explicitly named the day before the session.
Routine quick syncs and informal pings are excluded from the emergency definition.
The focus session starting routine specifies assigning the named task the prior day.
and 8 more in the full report
8 fixed11 passed either way2 still failing1 broke
Pass-rate lift
+32 pp
Tokens
+45%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-11%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/14/2026v119 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 8 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 8
Prompt
I'm a marketing manager struggling to complete high-impact projects like our upcoming product launch messaging guide and sales collateral. My highest focus hours are usually mid-morning (9:30 AM to 11:30 AM) and late afternoon (3:30 PM to 5:00 PM), while my calendar is clogged with recurring team standups and cross-functional check-ins. Can you design a detailed focus blocking framework for my week? The output should include the recommended schedule of blocks tied to my peak energy times, explicit tier rules for what can reschedule a block versus what cannot, scripts for handling meeting requests, a ritual checklist for starting each session, and guidelines for negotiating these boundaries with my cross-functional colleagues.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
The defense strategy establishes distinct rules for non-negotiable anchor blocks versus reschedulable flex blocks.
Missed
Passed
The decline responses omit project details and state an existing commitment when declining invites.
Missed
Passed
The focus session starting routine specifies assigning the named task the prior day.
Missed
Passed
case-02 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/14/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md58 linessingle file
Deep Work Blocking Skill
Focus blocks fail three ways: placed wrong (2pm slump hosting the hardest work), defended badly (the block that moves for every invite is decoration with a border color), and entered badly (twenty minutes of warmup-shuffling inside a 90-minute block is a 70-minute block wearing a lie). The design fixes all three: blocks land on the user's actual high-energy hours (energy-scheduling supplies the map), carry explicit defense tiers (what outranks them — almost nothing — and the decline scripts), and start with an entry ritual — the named task waiting, the environment pre-set — because a block is a container, and containers need contents chosen before the clock starts.
What This Skill Produces
The block design — count, length (90–120 min beats the 8-hour fantasy), and placement on real energy hours
The defense tiers — what moves a block (genuine emergencies, defined), what never does, and the decline scripts
The entry ritual — the task named the day before, the environment checklist, the first-five-minutes rule
The culture negotiation — making blocks legible to the team (the shared norm beats the solo fight)
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
The energy reality — when the user's genuinely sharp hours fall (the honest answer, not the aspirational one); blocks on slump hours produce guilt, not work
The calendar's constraints — the immovable meetings, the team's collaboration hours, the time zone spread; blocks live in the real grid
The work that needs the blocks — the big-three outcomes (weekly-review-ritual) the blocks exist to serve; blocks without assigned work become email time with the door closed
The interruption culture — can a block survive here socially? The negotiation section scales to the actual environment
Framework: The Blocking Rules
Size honestly, place on peaks: 90–120 minutes is the sustainable unit (attention's real budget); two such blocks is a strong day. The 8-hour focus fantasy collapses by 11am and discredits the practice. Placement follows the energy map — the best hours go to the hardest work first, before the calendar's entropy claims them (recurring-meeting-pruner reclaims supply this space).
Defense tiers, pre-decided: Tier 1 (never moves): the two weekly anchor blocks — invites get the script: "I have a commitment then — Thursday 2pm works?" (a block IS a commitment; the script just declines to itemize it). Tier 2 (moves for named things): the flex blocks, moved forward in the same week, never deleted. The emergency definition is written: production-down and boss-says-now qualify; "quick sync?" does not.
The entry ritual kills the warmup tax: the day before, the block gets its named task ("draft sections 2–3," not "work on the doc") · entry checklist: notifications off, the one document open, phone elsewhere · the first-five-minutes rule: start on the named task immediately, badly if necessary — momentum converts; browsing "to warm up" evaporates blocks whole.
Blocks are legible, not secret: the calendar shows "Focus block" (visible, normalized), the team knows the pattern ("mornings I'm deep, afternoons I'm reachable" — working-agreements material), and the async norms (async-update-format) carry what would have interrupted. The solo fight against a synchronous culture loses; the negotiated norm holds.
The block reviews itself: each block ends with 60 seconds — did the named task move? If blocks keep producing nothing, the diagnosis tree runs: wrong hours (re-place), wrong sizing (shrink), vague tasks (the naming discipline), or leaks (the defense failed — count what actually interrupted). Blocks that fail silently get quietly deleted by their owner within a month; the review is the early-warning.
Output Format
Deep Work Design: [name] — [N] blocks/week
The Blocks
[Day × time × tier · placed on: (the energy map's peaks) · serving: (the big three)]
Defense
[Tier 1 anchors + the decline script · Tier 2 flex + the same-week-move rule · the written emergency definition]
The Entry Ritual
[Named-task-the-day-before · the environment checklist · the first-five-minutes rule]
Decide what in your workload to hand to AI and what to keep yourself — like managing a fast, capable, but unreliable new hire — so you get leverage without offloading the things that need you. Use when asked what should I delegate to AI, what can AI take off my plate, where should I use AI in my work, or what should I keep doing myself. Produces a sort of your tasks into delegate-fully / delegate-with-review / keep-human, the reasoning behind each line, how to brief the AI on the delegated ones,