Focus session · design work · 25 min
25-minute focus session for design work with distant traffic, if you have done this a hundred times
25 minutes on design work — rough versions first. 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.
Start with the noise that is already in the room. We are not going to try to remove it yet. If you have done this a hundred times, change one small thing tonight. Straight through, at a normal pace.
1 Before you start
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
2 While the timer runs
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
3 When it ends
- Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
- Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
4What to put on
distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.
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