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Resources A focus sprint

A focus sprint

One task, one block of time you choose, a clock you can pause or stop whenever you want. At the end you get back what you worked on and how long you gave it. There is no score, no streak and no record kept.

This is not an assessment. Stopping after four minutes is a legitimate result, and often a more informative one than finishing.


What are you working on?

The task

For example: the second seminar reading, or the practical write-up.

The thing that would be different on the screen or the page after two minutes. Open the PDF and read the abstract works. Start the essay does not, because nothing tells you when it has happened.

Worth knowing. Deciding in advance when and where you will act, and naming the specific action, is one of the better-supported findings in the goal literature — Gollwitzer and Sheeran's meta-analysis of 94 studies reported a medium-to-large effect (Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006). The question about your first visible move is that finding, in one box. The block length is a convention rather than a research result, which is why you choose it.

Written for Thought Club as general guidance, not medical advice. Free to read, print, and share.