Focus session · reading · 90 min
90-minute focus session for reading with distant traffic, when you are somewhere unfamiliar
90 minutes on reading — pages rather than paragraphs. One full ultradian cycle, for work that needs a long runway.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Let your belly be soft. Not sucked in. Just soft. It travels well. Hotels, spare rooms, other people’s sofas. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
2 While the timer runs
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
3 When it ends
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
4What to put on
distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.
If this block does not fit, try 25-minute focus session for reading with forest at dusk, if you are tired of apps, Focus session for research: 45 minutes, rain on a window, when you need something unremarkable or Deep work timer: 45 minutes of practising an instrument (plain quiet), when you want to finish something.