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#FocusTime structure
May. 15th, 2018 05:11 pmBased on a "power hour" structure I saw elsewhere online:
So, for example, this afternoon on Mastodon I used this structure:
2.00-2.10pm BST: check in, say what you're hoping to do and what the next steps are that you can take
2.10-3.00pm: do things
3.00-3.10pm BST: check in, say whether you did the things, what's going well, what's hard?
3.10-4.00pm: do things!
4.00-4.10pm: check in
4.10-5.00pm: do things
5.00-5.10pm: final check-in and debrief
I'm currently planning to do this a lot more often, using the hashtag #FocusTime. Like, probably three hours every morning and three hours every afternoon. I'll stick to BST/GMT because that's where I live. I'll stick to Mastodon because Twitter is too full and Mastodon seems to have better hashtag muting (and if that doesn't work, I can pretty easily set up another account on some other instance and people who are interested can follow me there and those who aren't don't have to.)
But that's not optimal timing for everyone, and there are lots of days where I have appointments that won't let me host. So, if you think it would be helpful for you, please host your own #FocusTime session. You could do it in an IRC channel, or on Mastodon, or what have you.
I do have some requests:
1) Please try to stick to the top of the hour as a start time, unless you're in a weird half-hour-difference timezone, so that if there are overlapping sessions hosted by different people in the same online space, they don't get out of sync and super distracting for those of us who are only following the one hashtag in order to remind ourselves to get back to work.
2) Please don't do this anywhere that people can't easily mute or ignore it, that's just obnoxious.
3) During the check-ins, try to be kind and encouraging to yourself and others.
- At the top of the hour, check-in, and detail what you plan to work on and what the next steps you can do today are.
- At ten past the hour, start doing the work.
- At the top of the hour, check-in, say what worked and what was hard, and what you plan to do next. This is also a good time to stretch, rehydrate, and visit the loo.
- Repeat for up to three hours.
- At the end, debrief for ten minutes and take a break.
So, for example, this afternoon on Mastodon I used this structure:
2.00-2.10pm BST: check in, say what you're hoping to do and what the next steps are that you can take
2.10-3.00pm: do things
3.00-3.10pm BST: check in, say whether you did the things, what's going well, what's hard?
3.10-4.00pm: do things!
4.00-4.10pm: check in
4.10-5.00pm: do things
5.00-5.10pm: final check-in and debrief
I'm currently planning to do this a lot more often, using the hashtag #FocusTime. Like, probably three hours every morning and three hours every afternoon. I'll stick to BST/GMT because that's where I live. I'll stick to Mastodon because Twitter is too full and Mastodon seems to have better hashtag muting (and if that doesn't work, I can pretty easily set up another account on some other instance and people who are interested can follow me there and those who aren't don't have to.)
But that's not optimal timing for everyone, and there are lots of days where I have appointments that won't let me host. So, if you think it would be helpful for you, please host your own #FocusTime session. You could do it in an IRC channel, or on Mastodon, or what have you.
I do have some requests:
1) Please try to stick to the top of the hour as a start time, unless you're in a weird half-hour-difference timezone, so that if there are overlapping sessions hosted by different people in the same online space, they don't get out of sync and super distracting for those of us who are only following the one hashtag in order to remind ourselves to get back to work.
2) Please don't do this anywhere that people can't easily mute or ignore it, that's just obnoxious.
3) During the check-ins, try to be kind and encouraging to yourself and others.
