Focus session · research · 90 min
90-minute research session with a fireplace and a timer, when you have just finished work
Sit down, press start, and follow one thread 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.
Sit however you were already sitting. You don't have to straighten up first. The gap right after work is the easiest one to use. Follow the instructions and let the rest look after itself.
1 Before you start
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
- Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
2 While the timer runs
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
- Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.
4What to put on
a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.