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Plan with AI
№ 0402 How-To Deep Focus & Attention

How to Do Deep Work with AI Assistance: A Step-by-Step Guide

A practical walkthrough for using AI to prepare your context, clear interruptions, and define your exit point before every focused session.

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The Plan With AI Editors
· 9 min read
Subject how to do deep work with AI

The problem with most deep work advice is that it tells you to protect the time without telling you what to do when the time arrives.

You block ninety minutes. You sit down. Your brain is still half in the email thread you did not quite finish. You know you are supposed to be working, but you are not quite there yet.

That gap between showing up and actually starting is where most sessions lose their best minutes. AI, used precisely, closes it.

This guide walks through the process step by step.

Step 1: Block the Right Slot (Scheduling Is Not This Guide’s Job)

Before any of the following steps apply, you need a calendar block. Deep work does not happen in found time.

The question of when to schedule that block—your peak cognitive window, session length, how many per week—is a scheduling problem. It is covered in depth in our deep work scheduling guide. Come back here when the slot exists and you are sitting in it.

Step 2: Open AI and Run Gate 1 — Prime Your Context

The first and most valuable step is loading your working memory before you start.

Gather whatever materials are relevant to your session: your last draft, notes from your previous session, the open questions you left yourself, the relevant emails or tickets. Paste or describe them to your AI tool.

Use this prompt:

Here is where I left off on [project/task]:
[paste notes, last paragraph, or brief description]

Give me:
1. A two-sentence summary of where I am in this work.
2. The single most important thing to do next.
3. The three pieces of information I need to hold in mind 
   to do it well.

Read the output. Do not edit it, argue with it, or extend it. Just read it once and let it orient you.

This step replaces the first fifteen to twenty minutes of fumbling re-orientation that most sessions waste. Your working memory arrives populated.

Step 3: Run Gate 2 — Resolve Open Loops

Open loops are the unfinished business that sits in the back of your mind and generates what researcher Sophie Leroy calls attention residue. They do not have to be urgent to be distracting. They just have to be unresolved.

Before you close the AI, list every open loop that might surface during the session. Be honest. Include the trivial ones.

Then use this prompt:

I am about to go offline for [X] minutes.
These open loops might pull my attention:
[list them]

For each one, give me one of:
- A 30-second action to close it right now.
- A short message I can send to create a clean handoff.
- Confirmation that it can genuinely wait.

Work through the resulting list. It takes three to five minutes. Some items will be a quick Slack message: “On it after 2pm.” Some will be a thirty-second reply. Some genuinely can wait.

The goal is not to finish every open task. The goal is to transform diffuse anxiety into resolved or delegated items. Your mind will quiet.

Step 4: Run Gate 3 — Define the Exit Point

A session without a defined exit point is a session without a finish line. You work, but you never quite know if you succeeded.

Give AI your task and the time you have, and ask it to define success concretely:

My session goal is [task description].
I have [X] minutes.
Define a specific, observable deliverable 
that constitutes a successful session at this scope.
Not "make progress"—something I can look at 
and say either "yes, I did that" or "no, I didn't."

Write the exit point on a sticky note or in your task manager. Put it somewhere visible.

This single step measurably improves session quality for two reasons. First, you know what you are building, which focuses effort. Second, you know when to stop—which prevents the drift and fatigue that come from open-ended sessions.

Step 5: Close AI and Begin

Not minimize. Close.

If your AI tool is visible, you will use it. Using it is a context switch. Context switches generate attention residue. Attention residue degrades depth.

The runway is the preparation. The session is the work. They are distinct phases, and mixing them defeats the purpose.

Now start. You know where you are, your open loops are resolved, and you know what done looks like. That is everything you need.

Step 6: Work to Your Exit Point

During the session:

  • Do not check messages.
  • Do not open new browser tabs unless directly required by the task.
  • When a distraction thought arises, write it on a physical notepad and return to work. Do not act on it.
  • If you find yourself slowing, re-read your exit point definition. That usually re-anchors you.

When you hit your exit point—stop. Or, if you have remaining time and clear momentum, extend by a defined increment (fifteen more minutes, not “until I’m done”).

Step 7: Write a Handoff Note Before You Close Out

This is the step most people skip. It is also the step that makes the next session’s Gate 1 prompt immediate instead of effortful.

Before you close your documents, write three sentences:

  1. What you completed.
  2. Where you left off exactly.
  3. The first thing to do next session.

You can use AI to help with this:

My session is ending. I accomplished [X].
I stopped at [Y].
Write me a three-sentence handoff note 
I can paste into my next Gate 1 prompt.

This note becomes your context source for next time. The runway gets faster every session because your inputs get sharper.

What Happens After a Few Weeks

The runway process feels deliberate at first. After two to three weeks of consistent use, it becomes a transition ritual—a reliable signal to your nervous system that concentrated work is beginning.

This is not metaphorical. Rituals that precede focused work are documented in research on elite performers. Csikszentmihalyi’s studies of people who reliably enter flow states found that consistent pre-session routines were a common feature. The routine does not produce flow, but it reliably reduces the initialization time.

The three-gate runway is that routine, with AI handling the cognitively expensive parts—context retrieval and interruption triage—so that the ritual itself stays fast.

One session teaches you the process. Ten sessions build the habit. Twenty sessions make it automatic.

The One Thing to Do Before Your Next Session

Before your next scheduled focus block, write a three-sentence context note about where you currently stand on your most important project. That note is your Gate 1 input. Having it ready will make the runway five minutes instead of eight—and it will make the session immediately productive rather than gradually so.

Related:

Tags: deep work, how-to, AI workflow, focus, attention management

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How long should deep work preparation take?

    The three-gate runway should take five to eight minutes total. If it takes longer, you are likely over-elaborating or stalling. The goal is a lean briefing that gets you to working altitude, not a second planning session.

  • Should I use AI during a deep work session?

    No. The Deep Work Runway keeps AI in the pre-flight phase only. During the session itself, close the AI tool. Querying AI mid-session is a context switch, and each context switch generates attention residue that degrades the quality of your output.

  • What if I don't have notes to prime context from?

    Start with whatever you have: your task description, the last email about the project, a rough outline. Even minimal input gives AI enough to generate a useful working-memory brief. Over time you will naturally build the habit of leaving a 'handoff note' at the end of each session for your future self.