Focus session · exam revision · 25 min
Deep work timer: 25 minutes of exam preparation
One block of exam preparation with the gentle hum of a distant train underneath. One pomodoro, long enough to make progress and short enough to keep you focused.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Stay in the chair you're in right now. There's no need to adjust. Late afternoon can be a great time for this. It's all about not getting caught up in the details.
1 Before you start
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
2 While the timer runs
- 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 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.
3 When it ends
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
- Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.
If this block does not fit, try Deep work timer: 90 minutes of creative planning, Deep work timer: 45 minutes of writing or 90-minute decluttering session with vinyl crackle.