Focus session · portfolio work · 50 min

A 50-minute block for portfolio work, with plain quiet, when you are cold and want to be warm

A single 50-minute block for portfolio work — the last ten percent.

50:00

Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.

Notice where your body touches the chair. That contact is doing more for you than it looks. Get a blanket first. Being cold defeats the point. No preamble. We start with the body.

1 Before you start

  • Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
  • Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
  • Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
  • Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
  • Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

2 While the timer runs

  • If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
  • If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
  • When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
  • If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.

3 When it ends

  • Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
  • Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
  • Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.

4What to put on

plain quiet — No added sound at all. If you have a quiet room, that is usually better than any recording of one.

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