Focus session · data work · 25 min
25-minute focus session for data work with a washing machine, when you have just finished work
25 minutes on data work — checking as you go. 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.
Put both feet flat on the floor and let them take some of the weight. The gap right after work is the easiest one to use. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.
1 Before you start
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
- Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
2 While the timer runs
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
3 When it ends
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.