A focus timer for getting started
Most focus timers assume the hard part is staying on task. Often the hard part is starting. This one is built around that: thirty seconds to name the smallest possible first step, ten minutes of work on it, and a minute at the end to decide what comes next. Ten minutes is short enough that saying no to it feels a little silly.
Once you are going, carrying on is usually easy. When the ten minutes end you can stop with a clear conscience, run another ten, or move up to a full Pomodoro. Either way the task is no longer untouched, and an untouched task is the kind that weighs on you all day.
How to use it
Press Start. A calm voice asks you to name one small first step, something like “open the file” or “write the first line”, and gives you thirty seconds to choose it. Then the ten minutes begin. There is no ticking and nothing to watch: a chime and the voice mark each change, and the session closes with a one-minute pause.
It runs in the Forest scene, with a stream and distant birds underneath, so a noisy room fades a little. Keep the tab open and work in another window if you like; the timer keeps going.
Three tips for a better focus session
Make the first step tiny
Pick something you could finish in two minutes. A small, specific step gets you moving; a big, vague one is usually the reason you were stalling.
Put the phone out of reach
Not face down beside you: in another room, or at the bottom of a bag. Ten minutes without checking it is far easier when checking takes effort.
Decide in the last minute, not the first
Do not plan the whole afternoon before you begin. Use the closing minute to choose: stop, run another ten, or switch to longer blocks now that you are warmed up.
Who it is for
Procrastinators, mostly, and anyone facing a task that feels bigger than it is: the email you are dreading, the first page of an essay, the tax form. It is also a gentle way back in after a long break, an interruption or a slow morning.
When you want longer stretches of focus, move up to the Classic Pomodoro, with its four rounds of 25 minutes, or a single 90-minute Deep Work block.