Focus session · planning · 90 min

90-minute planning session with a train carriage and a timer, when the day has been loud

Sit down, press start, and decide what happens when for 90 minutes. 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.

Take a moment to notice the room behind you, without turning around. For days that were loud from the moment they started. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.

1 Before you start

Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
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 notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
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.

4What to put on

a train carriage — Rhythmic, low, and slightly rumbly. Many people find the motion-and-noise combination easier to work to than silence.

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 A 90-minute block for decluttering, with a train carriage, when you are not sure this will work, 90-minute focus session for coding with birds at dawn, when you are doing this for the first time or Deep work timer: 90 minutes of portfolio work (forest at dusk), when you have been on screens all day.