How do you actually get focused work done during the workday? Especially in a hybrid setup?

This has been a big challenge for me, and I’m curious how others are handling it, especially those working in hybrid environments.

I find that I struggle to get real focused work done during the traditional 9–5 window. Ironically, I tend to be most productive outside of that, evenings, weekends, which obviously isn’t sustainable long-term and doesn't support a real life-work balance.

Part of it is all the noise: constant DM pings, meetings, notifications, (WORKPLACE, how do I stop scrolling haha?), it’s hard to carve out blocks of time to focus deeply on one thing. I know I need to be stricter with my time and probably set up more rigid focus blocks, but I haven’t quite cracked that yet.

There’s also a personal factor: I’ve never really been a “morning person.” Even when I wake up early and try to start strong (coffee, workouts, etc.), it still takes me hours to fully “boot up” mentally. That delayed ramp-up makes it even harder to be effective during core working hours.

On top of that, I think some of this is a byproduct of how I worked in college. I never studied on campus, I always worked at home. So public or shared workspaces have always been tough for me. When I started my first job (in-person), I struggled a lot with that adjustment.

I then worked fully remotely for about three years, which honestly suited me better. Now I’m in a hybrid role, and I assumed it would be the best of both worlds. But I'm still having trouble finding a rhythm.

One of my biggest pain points with hybrid work is the commute, it’s about two hours each way. Moving isn’t really an option right now, so when I go in, that’s four hours of my day just gone. I try to cluster my office days together and use them mostly for meetings or team face-time, because I often feel like I can’t get any deep work done on those days anyway… though, weirdly, sometimes I can. It really depends.

So I’m wondering:

• Has anyone else faced similar struggles, especially transitioning from remote to hybrid?
• How do you protect your time for deep work during the day?
• Any specific strategies (schedule-wise or mindset-wise) that helped you turn the corner?