Focus session · data work · 50 min
Deep work timer: 50 minutes of data work (rain on a window), when you have just finished work
One block of data work with rain on a window underneath. Fifty minutes, the length of a therapy hour, with ten minutes off afterwards.
50:00
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. The gap right after work is the easiest one to use. 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.
- If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
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 you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.
3 When it ends
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
- Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
4What to put on
rain on a window — Steady rain is broadband noise with a slow natural rhythm. It masks speech and keyboard clatter without being interesting enough to listen to.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.