Focus session · reading · 25 min
Deep work timer: 25 minutes of reading (a library), when you have more time than usual
One block of reading with a library 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.
Let your next exhale be a sigh, if a sigh is what's waiting there. This is the longer version, for a day with some slack in it. No preamble. We start with the body.
1 Before you start
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
- Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
2 While the timer runs
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
- The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
3 When it ends
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
- Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
4What to put on
a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.