SoftlyStillStart now

Focus session · problem solving · 45 min

Deep work timer: 45 minutes of problem solving (distant traffic), if you are tired of apps

One block of problem solving with distant traffic underneath. A single class period, the length most people can hold before the quality drops.

45:00

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. No account, no streak, no notification asking how you feel. This is a short one, so let's use the time properly.

1 Before you start

  • Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
  • Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
  • Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
  • Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
  • Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.

2 While the timer runs

  • If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
  • If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
  • It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
  • If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.

3 When it ends

  • Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
  • Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.
  • Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.

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 25-minute focus block for language practice — rain on a window, when you are waiting for something, 45-minute focus block for admin and email — a library, if you are fitting this around other people or A 25-minute block for editing, with rain on a window, when you need something unremarkable.