Focus session · reading · 25 min
25-minute reading session with birds at dawn and a timer, when you feel restless rather than tired
Sit down, press start, and read properly 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.
Feel your ribs move. That is all the machinery you need to pay attention to right now. Restless is different from tired, and it needs a different approach. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
- Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
2 While the timer runs
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
3 When it ends
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
4What to put on
birds at dawn — Bright but not sharp. Better for early sessions than for late ones.
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