Focus session · admin and email · 90 min
Focus session for admin and email: 90 minutes, plain quiet, after eating too much
90 minutes of admin and email, with plain quiet and a note on what to do when you drift.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Start with the noise that is already in the room. We are not going to try to remove it yet. Do this sitting up, not lying down, if you have just eaten. This works better when you don't overthink it.
1 Before you start
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
- Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
2 While the timer runs
- If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
- 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.
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
3 When it ends
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
4What to put on
plain quiet — No added sound at all. If you have a quiet room, that is usually better than any recording of one.
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 45-minute research session with a library and a timer, when you are somewhere noisy, 45-minute focus block for drawing — white noise, when nothing else has worked today or 25-minute focus block for research — rain on a window, when you want to be left alone.