Focus session · practising an instrument · 50 min
Deep work timer: 50 minutes of practising an instrument (a fan or air conditioner), when you feel fine and want to stay that way
One block of practising an instrument with a fan or air conditioner 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.
Feel your ribs move. That is all the machinery you need to pay attention to right now. Feeling fine is a good reason to do this, not a reason to skip it. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
- Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
- Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
2 While the timer runs
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
3 When it ends
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
4What to put on
a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.