Focus session · coding · 90 min
90-minute focus block for coding — forest at dusk, if you are doing this in the middle of the day
A timer, a short prep list, and 90 minutes to work through the problem.
90:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Turn your phone face down if it's within reach. If it's in another room, even better. Midday is an underrated time for this. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
2 While the timer runs
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
- The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
3 When it ends
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
4What to put on
forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.