Count the Focus Blocks Left Beside Your Meetings — Free
Whether deep work fits is arithmetic, not willpower. Subtract booked meetings from your working day and count how many blocks of your minimum useful length actually remain.
The proof surface
Meeting cost tools price the meeting itself. This audits what is left around it: whole focus blocks of a length you define, per day, so a fragmented calendar shows up as a count of zero.
Why the flat version breaks
Counting leftover minutes as blocks
Four 20-minute gaps are not one 80-minute block.
Ignoring recurring meetings
Standups consume the same minutes every week.
Shrinking the block to flatter the week
A block you cannot use is not deep work.
How to work the focus block grid
Ninety minutes is a common choice for concentrated work; use the length your own work really needs. Fragments shorter than this do not count, and that is the point.
Include standing calls and recurring bookings for a representative week. On a 480-minute day, Monday’s 150 booked minutes leave 330, which fits three 90-minute blocks.
Friday’s 465 booked minutes leave fifteen — zero blocks of sixty minutes or more, flagged. The weekly total of three blocks is the sum across days; a good Tuesday cannot restore a consumed Friday.
If the count is short, the levers are meeting length, meeting placement and day length — not a smaller block definition you will not honour. Re-run after any change to the calendar.
What the focus block grid replaces
| Question | Before | Visible working |
|---|---|---|
| Counting leftover minutes as blocks | Four 20-minute gaps are not one 80-minute block. | Enter booked meeting minutes per day |
| Ignoring recurring meetings | Standups consume the same minutes every week. | Read Friday honestly |
| Shrinking the block to flatter the week | A block you cannot use is not deep work. | Move meetings, not the arithmetic |
A local arithmetic aid replaces hand calculation, not expert review. No paid AI service is needed.
Run it on the samples, right here
FIRST-LOAD
Input is processed locally and a draft is saved automatically in this browser profile when storage is available. Reset to sample clears that draft; Pro history has its own clear button. A state link encodes your inputs in its URL: share only non-sensitive rows. Browser history, clipboard and anyone receiving the link may retain it. Optional AI use below leaves this device; it is not required.
Calendar arithmetic on minutes you enter, assuming meetings and blocks tile the day cleanly; it cannot see when meetings sit or how interruptions really fall. Not a productivity guarantee.
Data note: Everything runs in this browser tab on the focus block grid: your weekday | booked meeting minutes | shortest usable block minutes stays on this device, nothing is uploaded, and the reading is rebuilt only when you press run.
Go deeper: the companion app files the same reading as a scored comparison matrix
The article demo above runs without limits. The companion app keeps a local history, exports the rows as CSV, prints the focus block grid reading, and holds your drafts on this device — one free run, then $ 4 one-time for the layer that keeps filing.
The focus block grid reading is complete for free. The optional $4 layer adds print, row CSV and the last five local reading summaries; it does not add hidden answers. Checkout is not configured yet; the article demo remains unlimited.
Open the count the focus blocks left beside your meetings companionBoundary
Calendar arithmetic on minutes you enter, assuming meetings and blocks tile the day cleanly; it cannot see when meetings sit or how interruptions really fall. Not a productivity guarantee.
What this is built on
- Method: Friday’s 465 booked minutes leave fifteen — zero blocks of sixty minutes or more, flagged. The weekly total of three blocks is the sum across days; a good Tuesday cannot restore a consumed Friday.
- All sample records are invented examples. The app does not fetch measurements, policies, files or personal records.
- Google’s official pricing page, fetched 2026-09-28, lists free-tier access including AI Studio. Optional formatting only; limits and availability can change. Free-tier content may be used to improve products. Never paste private records there.
Before: Four 20-minute gaps are not one 80-minute block. After: the focus block grid shows the working beside each named row so the reader can change the assumption and inspect the consequence.
Optional AI formatting, not calculation
For this focus block grid, use the free AI Studio interface only if available to you, with no paid API key. Manual entry completes the same workflow for free. Supply only fictional or non-sensitive notes. Review its output against the source; never paste unresolved questions into the numeric rows.
Format my non-sensitive notes for a focus block grid. Return plain rows only: weekday | booked meeting minutes | shortest usable block minutes. Preserve supplied quantities exactly. Do not guess missing values; list questions separately. Do not calculate or add advice. I will check every row before pasting into the local tool.
Accepted schema: weekday | booked meeting minutes | shortest usable block minutes. No AI response is executed as code.