Forcing yourself to do Pomodoro sessions can help. It allows you to go deep without going too deep - having to take that five minute break so you can walk aroun

Forcing yourself to do Pomodoro sessions can help. It allows you to go deep without going too deep - having to take that five minute break so you can walk around, check email, or whatever can keep your brain from "going native" in the computer. Also, for anyone interested in intensive work sessions in general, I highly recommend reading Deep Work, by Cal Newport. He talks a lot about how to do really intensive work while remaining a fully functional and engaged human being outside the work. One thing he recommends in the book is to have a shutdown ritual. He actually says out loud "I am shutting down now", to help kick his brain out of deep work mode.