Focus session · coding · 90 min
90-minute focus block for coding — rain on a window, when you have been on screens all 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.
Notice the temperature of the air on the backs of your hands. After a day of screens, the eyes and the shoulders need this first. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.
1 Before you start
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
- Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
2 While the timer runs
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
3 When it ends
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
- Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
4What to put on
rain on a window — Steady rain is broadband noise with a slow natural rhythm. It masks speech and keyboard clatter without being interesting enough to listen to.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.