Focus session · decluttering · 45 min
45-minute focus session for decluttering with a fireplace, when you cannot concentrate on anything else
45 minutes on decluttering — one surface at a time. A single class period, the length most people can hold before the quality drops.
45:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Unclench your jaw. You were probably holding it without noticing. When concentration is gone, work with what is left. This works better when you don't overthink it.
1 Before you start
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
- Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
2 While the timer runs
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
3 When it ends
- Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
4What to put on
a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.
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