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Focus session · drawing · 50 min

Focus session for drawing: 50 minutes, a washing machine, after a long day

50 minutes of drawing, with a washing machine and a note on what to do when you drift.

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. Use it at the end of a long day, not at the start of one. This is a short one, so let's use the time properly.

1 Before you start

  • Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
  • Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
  • Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
  • Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
  • Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.

2 While the timer runs

  • If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
  • If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
  • If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
  • When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

  • Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
  • Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
  • Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.

4What to put on

a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.

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 problem solving session with plain quiet and a timer, on a low-energy afternoon, 90-minute focus session for decluttering with a train carriage, when you are cold and want to be warm or 50-minute decluttering session with a train carriage and a timer, when the weather has kept you inside.