Working in pulses is my secret weapon

Jan 31, 2025

Work isn’t a marathon. At least in a marathon, you know where the finish line is.

Right now, you’re running with no clear end in sight.

We work on long-lasting, intangible projects that are hard to appreciate day-to-day.

Our response is to keep our foot on the accelerator all day. Tick off as much as possible, add just as much back onto the list, indulge in self-loathing, repeat.

In running, we’d call this a tempo run: a prolonged, high-intensity effort. They don’t feature much in running plans.

Why? Because they’re exhausting.

Working this way is exhausting.

Not only that, but the quality of work decreases as you continue to slog away.

What choices do we have? Isn’t this just the nature of modern work?

Last year, I found myself struggling with this once again. The struggle was intense enough that I thought: there had to be a better way.

David Cain had recently popped up in my Inbox with his popular piece, Do Quests not Goals. I noticed he also had a How To Do Things guide.

After lambasting myself for purchasing my 298th productivity guide, I read it in an hour or so and put it to work.

The method is familiar but potent. Bundle your work into blocks. These are 25-minute stretches, not unlike Pomodoro.

Before you start the block, visualise the outcome: the email is sent, the article is live, the item is ticked off a list etc. Then get started.

Whilst you’re in a block, do not stray from your tasks. This is your time to execute. Keep a “Right Now” sub-list to tick off things as you go. It feels good to draw a line through tasks.

Blocks are sacred: make sure each block is high quality. After each block, stop & rest.

I think of this as working in pulses: short, focused efforts that are both satisfying and more effective. Unlike the constant push of the tempo run, this is more akin to a short sprint, with plenty of time on either side to reflect and refocus.

Why does this work? Instead of long stretches of diminishing effort, you stack up smaller, high-impact efforts. This reduces cognitive load, decision fatigue and ensures you have time to breathe. Every engineering team builds in some kind of sprint. All athletes know how vital rest is following exertion.

The magic is that the joy of creating blocks flourishes almost independently of the work itself. It feels inherently good.

Working in pulses gives me a general-purpose tool for accomplishing anything in my life. Daily work is a case of stacking up blocks in the time I have. I get excited about what I can fit in a block. I get to complete lots of them throughout the day, and seeing them stack up feels great.

Over time, I’ve developed an intuitive sense of how many blocks something might take. And that any big project is just a series of blocks. I know that one exploratory block on any project provides a guaranteed roadmap forward.

You’ll be amazed what you can fit in 3 focused blocks. Conversely, some things take longer than you think and this becomes obvious when working in blocks. It’s much harder to “lose time” when you can see that the writing project you thought would take 10 minutes consumed 4 blocks of focused effort. That’s an interesting thing to know.

You can put anything in blocks. Shopping, emails, kettlebell workouts, house cleaning, dog training.

You’ll also notice that different kinds of work drain you in different ways. 3 blocks of frenzied note-taking wipes me out. But I can work 9-10 blocks of technical work into a day without feeling too drained.

This is productivity at its finest: simple and flexible. Without the need for the latest AI-enhanced, all-singing, all-scheduling app.

It has changed the way I work, dramatically. For timing pulses, I use the free Tomito app for macOS. It also has an optional ticking sound that I find useful for keeping me focused. Others find the ticking invokes palpable dread. Experiment.

Here’s what this looks like in a day, for me:

First thing: look over my calendar, email and todo list (Things)
Triage and write out your tasks for today on a post-it. I don’t want to be constantly flicking between apps to find out what I need to do. Even a well-organised inbox or todo list quickly becomes a distraction. Write what you’re doing today in one place, ideally outside of a screen.
Decide what to tackle and start your first block.
If it’s a multi-stage task, or you’re tackling several distinct tasks in a block, keep a Right Now list. I find this list incredibly helpful for keeping me on track.
Each time I complete a block, I draw it on my post-it. I like to see them stack up. It’s not necessary to do this, but I enjoy it.
Repeat. Each time I ignore this process and regress to slogging it out over long swathes of time, I feel frazzled and unsure of what I’ve accomplished.

Then I come back to my pulses. I start building blocks. I deliver more and I feel better.

Try one day of working in pulses. Just today, define your blocks, work with full focus, and take real breaks. You might be surprised how much better it feels.

—Dan