Focus session · applications and forms · 25 min
Deep work timer: 25 minutes of applications and forms (a train carriage), when you are not sure this will work
One block of applications and forms with a train carriage underneath. One pomodoro, long enough to get somewhere and short enough to start.
25:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Drop your attention from your head into your chest for a second. Not being sure it will work is a perfectly good reason to try it once. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
- Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
- Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
2 While the timer runs
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
- If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
3 When it ends
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
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.
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