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.
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.
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.