Focus session · brainstorming · 25 min
25-minute brainstorming session with café murmur and a timer, after a difficult conversation
Sit down, press start, and generate options for 25 minutes. One pomodoro, long enough to get somewhere and short enough to start.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
You don't have to empty your mind. Nobody has ever managed that, including the people who wrote the instructions. Difficult conversations leave a residue. This is for the residue. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
2 While the timer runs
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
- If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
3 When it ends
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
4What to put on
café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.
If this block does not fit, try 25-minute thesis writing session with white noise and a timer, when you are at home and cannot settle, Deep work timer: 25 minutes of exam revision or 50-minute focus session for applications and forms with brown noise, when you are too tired to try hard.