Focus session · research · 45 min
45-minute focus session for research with distant traffic, when your attention is scattered
45 minutes on research — with a note file open beside you. 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.
Notice the heaviest part of your body right now. Let it be heavy. Scattered attention is the raw material, not an obstacle. Straight through, at a normal pace.
1 Before you start
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
- Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
2 While the timer runs
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
3 When it ends
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
4What to put on
distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.