Focus session · brainstorming · 50 min
50-minute brainstorming session with rain on a window and a timer, when you have tried everything else
Sit down, press start, and generate options for 50 minutes. Fifty minutes, the length of a therapy hour, with ten minutes off afterwards.
50:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Rest your hands somewhere they don't have to do anything. This assumes you have already tried the obvious things. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.
1 Before you start
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- 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.
- If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.
- When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
3 When it ends
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
4What to put on
rain on a window — Steady rain is broadband noise with a slow natural rhythm. It masks speech and keyboard clatter without being interesting enough to listen to.
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