Focus session · reading · 45 min
A 45-minute block for reading, with a fan or air conditioner, when you are on your own
A single 45-minute block for reading — pages rather than paragraphs.
45:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Take one breath that is slightly slower than the last one. That is enough to start. Being on your own is not required, but it does make this simpler. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
- Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
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 get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
4What to put on
a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.