Focus session · portfolio work · 90 min
90-minute focus session for portfolio work with brown noise, when you want to finish something
90 minutes on portfolio work — the last ten percent. 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.
Sit however you were already sitting. You don't have to straighten up first. Wanting to finish something is a better motivation than wanting to relax. Follow the instructions and let the rest look after itself.
1 Before you start
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
- If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
- Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
2 While the timer runs
- If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
3 When it ends
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
4What to put on
brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.