Focus session · planning · 25 min
25-minute planning session with forest at dusk and a timer, when you feel fine and want to stay that way
Sit down, press start, and decide what happens when 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.
Let your next exhale be a sigh, if a sigh is what's waiting there. Feeling fine is a good reason to do this, not a reason to skip it. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
- Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
2 While the timer runs
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
3 When it ends
- Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
4What to put on
forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.
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 90-minute focus session for applications and forms with a fan or air conditioner, when you have been meaning to start, 25-minute design work session with white noise and a timer, when you are short on time or Focus session for drawing: 25 minutes, birds at dawn, when your attention is scattered.