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Cal Newport's book "Deep work" dives into the importance of blocks of focus time: http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/
1. Wake up 1.5hr earlier than my family. This gives me around 1.15hrs of solid focused time.
The downside is, of course, I have to sleep around 10 so the family time takes a hit. I have to leave early from office to compensate and if there's something that holds me back in office then there's a high chance this plan derails. I try my best to juggle work, self-time and family time and while it's not impossible, it sometimes becomes difficult. Last one week, for example, was such where I had a lot of issues at work, and fixing them and reaching home would mean I'll be back around 9.30PM and I had absolutely no interest in rising early.
2. Reach office an hour or so early and try to focus. I say try because there are things which are out of my control, especially the traffic. If there's bad traffic then reaching office and getting into a focused mode takes a lot of time.
Evenings I've tried working but this isn't consistent. Sometimes when the office is empty and most of my office work is done, I might get some time for focused work but this is pretty impossible to get. By the time I reach home, I have to swim through a lot of traffic so there's hardly any mental cycles left that I can spend on focused work.
Additionally, I would say that it works best when your focused time is same everyday. For me, that has been waking up early.
Try this: https://deepwork.me/
This website tells the truth when it says that following the deep work ritual is a pain. I've read the book and wholeheartedly agree with whatever Cal Newport says, but so far planning my day has been the most difficult thing to do, especially when I have to update it after the planning derails. I keep jumping between planning my on my computer using org-mode or planning it on paper. So far, nothing has stuck.
I'll give this website shot for some time.
I've tried a lot of different time slots and so far only two have worked for me: 1. Wake up 1.5hr earlier than my family. This gives me around 1.15hrs of solid focused time. The downside is, of course, I have to sleep around 10 so the family time takes a hit. I have to leave early from office to compensate and if there's something that holds me back in office then there's a high chance this plan derails. I try my bes…
1. Morning time is easier to focus as one has more will power earlier in the day and reduced distraction from family/work.
2. Routine / consistency is key.
Thanks for an elaborate description of your experiments Tushar.