Focus session · planning · 90 min
A 90-minute block for planning, with a train carriage, after a long day
A single 90-minute block for planning — on paper, so you can see it.
90:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Rest your hands somewhere they don't have to do anything. Use it at the end of a long day, not at the start of one. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
2 While the timer runs
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
3 When it ends
- Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
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.