Focus session · brainstorming · 45 min
A 45-minute block for brainstorming, with café murmur, if you have five quiet minutes
A single 45-minute block for brainstorming — quantity before quality.
45:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Notice the heaviest part of your body right now. Let it be heavy. Five quiet minutes is enough. Ten is generous. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.
1 Before you start
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
- Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
- Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
- Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
- Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
2 While the timer runs
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
4What to put on
café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.
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