Focus session · reading · 90 min
Focus session for reading: 90 minutes, forest at dusk, when you are not sure this will work
90 minutes of reading, with forest at dusk 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.
If you're sitting, let the chair do the work of holding you upright. Not being sure it will work is a perfectly good reason to try it once. Straight through, at a normal pace.
1 Before you start
- Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
- Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
2 While the timer runs
- When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
- If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
3 When it ends
- Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
- Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
- Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
4What to put on
forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.
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 coding session with a fireplace and a timer, when you want to finish something, Focus session for studying: 90 minutes, distant traffic, when you have been meaning to start or 50-minute focus session for problem solving with forest at dusk, when you want to finish something.