TimerFocus

TimerFocus / How long should a focus session be?

How long should a focus session be?

There's no perfect number. The right length depends on the task, how much you've slept and how long it takes you to get into the work. Here's a practical way to find yours.

Start with the task

Different work has different "warm-up" costs. Answering email takes seconds to start; untangling a tricky bug can take fifteen minutes just to load into your head. Short blocks suit quick-start tasks. Long blocks suit tasks with a long warm-up, because stopping throws that warm-up away.

TaskTryBreak
Email, admin, tidying up15–25 min3–5 min
Reading, revision, flashcards25–30 min5 min
Writing, coding, design45–50 min10 min
Deep creative work60–90 min15–20 min

Then check your energy

On a tired day, shorter blocks win. A 15-minute block you actually finish beats a 50-minute block you abandon after ten. Some people start the day with long blocks and switch to short ones in the afternoon; the timer makes that a two-second change.

Don't skip the breaks

Longer sessions need longer breaks, not fewer. In Ariga & Lleras (2011), Cognition, a long task wore people down steadily, but two brief switches away from it kept their performance up. A break works best when it's a real change: stand up, move, look into the distance, get a drink. Then come back to the same task.

As a rough guide, rest for about a fifth of the time you worked: 5 minutes after 25, 10 after 50, around 20 after 90.

Find your own rhythm in a week

  1. Day 1–2: use the classic 25/5 so you have a baseline.
  2. Note when your attention drifted. If it was before the bell, shorten the block. If the bell felt like an interruption, lengthen it.
  3. Adjust by 5 minutes at a time with the dial, and keep the break at roughly one fifth.
  4. By the end of the week, you'll have one length for "quick" work and one for "deep" work. Save them with Custom.

Signs your blocks are too long

  • You check your phone in the middle of most blocks.
  • You reread the same paragraph several times.
  • You feel drained instead of pleasantly tired at the long break.

Signs they're too short

  • The bell keeps interrupting you right as you finally get going.
  • You spend the start of every block remembering where you were.

For the basics of the timed-block approach, read the 25/5 focus method.

Ready to try it? The timer is on the home page, with the music built in.

Open the focus timer

Questions

Is 25 minutes too short to focus?

Not for most tasks, and it's a good default. If the bell keeps cutting you off mid-thought, try 45 or 50 minutes with a 10-minute break.

How long should a break be?

About a fifth of the focus block works for most people: 5 minutes after 25, 10 after 50, and 15 to 30 after four blocks.

Can I focus for 90 minutes?

Some people can, for work they love. Treat it as the exception, and take a proper 15 to 20 minute break afterwards.

Sources

  1. Brief and rare mental "breaks" keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements. Cognition, 2011. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007

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