Focus session · applications and forms · 90 min

90-minute focus session for applications and forms with a fireplace, if you have five quiet minutes

90 minutes on applications and forms — dull but finite. One full ultradian cycle, for work that needs a long runway.

90:00

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. Five quiet minutes is enough. Ten is generous. No preamble. We start with the body.

1 Before you start

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.
Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

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.
When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.

a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.

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