Focus session · coding · 50 min
50-minute coding session with birds at dawn and a timer, after eating too much
Sit down, press start, and work through the problem for 50 minutes. Fifty minutes, the length of a therapy hour, with ten minutes off afterwards.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Your breathing doesn't have to change yet. Let it be whatever size it currently is. Do this sitting up, not lying down, if you have just eaten. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
- 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.
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
2 While the timer runs
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
- If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
birds at dawn — Bright but not sharp. Better for early sessions than for late ones.
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 50-minute focus session for applications and forms with plain quiet, after a long day, Focus session for data work: 45 minutes, birds at dawn, when you have been on screens all day or 90-minute focus block for writing — plain quiet, after a long day.