Focus session · research · 50 min
50-minute focus session for research with a washing machine, when you want to be left alone
50 minutes on research — with a note file open beside you. 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.
Drop your attention from your head into your chest for a second. Nothing here asks anything of you socially. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
2 While the timer runs
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
3 When it ends
- Have a drink of water before you check anything.
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
4What to put on
a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.