Focus session · reading · 25 min
Focus session for reading: 25 minutes, a stream, when you are short on time
25 minutes of reading, with a stream and a note on what to do when you drift.
25:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Part of you is still in the last conversation you had. That's fine. It can sit here too. Pick this one when you are short on time. Straight through, at a normal pace.
1 Before you start
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
- Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
2 While the timer runs
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
3 When it ends
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
4What to put on
a stream — Running water with small variation. Softer than rain and less repetitive than a fan.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.