Focus session · planning · 50 min

50-minute planning session with café murmur and a timer, after a long day

Sit down, press start, and decide what happens when 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.

If you're lying down, let the mattress hold all of you. You can stop holding yourself up. Use it at the end of a long day, not at the start of one. We'll be efficient and then you can get on with your day.

1 Before you start

  • Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
  • Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
  • Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
  • Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
  • Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.

2 While the timer runs

  • If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
  • It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
  • When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
  • When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

  • If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
  • Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
  • Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.

This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.