Focus session · brainstorming · 25 min
25-minute brainstorming session with distant traffic and a timer, if you are doing this instead of scrolling
Sit down, press start, and generate options for 25 minutes. One pomodoro, long enough to get somewhere and short enough to start.
25:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Find one place in your body that already feels fine. Use that as the starting point. Choosing this over scrolling counts as a good decision, even a small one. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
- Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
2 While the timer runs
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
3 When it ends
- Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
4What to put on
distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.