Focus session · coding · 45 min
Focus session for coding: 45 minutes, a fan or air conditioner, when you have woken up too early
45 minutes of coding, with a fan or air conditioner and a note on what to do when you drift.
45:00
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. Waking too early is a specific kind of frustrating. This helps with the frustration. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
- If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
- Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
- Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
- Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
2 While the timer runs
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
- The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
- If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.
- Have a drink of water before you check anything.
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.