Focus session · applications and forms · 50 min
50-minute focus session for applications and forms with brown noise, when you are too tired to try hard
50 minutes on applications and forms — dull but finite. 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.
Then find the nearest sound. It's probably your own breathing. Too tired to try hard is exactly the right amount of tired for this. This is a short one, so let's use the time properly.
1 Before you start
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
- Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
2 While the timer runs
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
3 When it ends
- 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.
- Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
4What to put on
brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.
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