Most people expect their brain to switch instantly from distraction to deep focus. It doesn’t work that way. Attention has inertia. When you try to jump straight into demanding work, you’re fighting the residue of emails, notifications, conversations, and unfinished thoughts.
This is why people sit at their desk for an hour and accomplish almost nothing. They’re technically working, but cognitively scattered. The solution isn’t more discipline. It’s a transition ritual.
An attention warm-up is a short, deliberate period that prepares your mind for focus. Think of it like stretching before exercise. You wouldn’t sprint without warming up your muscles. Deep work is no different.
A good warm-up has three parts. First, orientation. Look at what you worked on last and briefly remind yourself where you left off. This reconnects fragmented context and reduces the urge to re-read everything from scratch.
Second, intention. Write down one clear outcome for the session. Not a vague goal like “work on project,” but a concrete result: draft the outline, fix three bugs, write 500 words. This gives your attention something to lock onto.
Third, friction removal. Close irrelevant tabs. Silence notifications. Put your phone out of reach. Do not aim for perfection—just remove the most obvious distractions. Five minutes here saves an hour later.
The entire process should take five to ten minutes. Any longer and it becomes procrastination. The point is not to feel productive, but to become focused.
Over time, this ritual trains your brain to associate the warm-up with entering a focused state. You spend less energy forcing concentration and more energy using it.
People who skip this step often complain that they lack focus. In reality, they lack a transition. Attention needs a runway. Give it one.