Blogfocus
Notes about focus
28 posts that talk about the focus room. The playlist itself lives at /focus.
- 01
Notes on the focus room
Why the music has to be present enough to fill the room and quiet enough to lose to the screen.
- 02
Music for the first coffee
The first half hour after waking is more delicate than the rest of the day. Here's what survives it.
- 03
Music for a long drive
A brief I haven't built a playlist for — because every drive is different in ways a playlist can't hold.
- 04
Music for the hour between work and dinner
The decompression hour most people don't soundtrack — and what to do about it.
- 05
Music for the train
Trains are different from cars. Public, headphones on, more thinking time.
- 06
Music for a walk
The brief depends on whether the walk has a destination.
- 07
Music for waiting
Airports, lobbies, doctor's offices — a brief for short, low-control time.
- 08
Music for the last hour at the office
The work isn't going to get better and the day isn't going to get shorter.
- 09
Music for a long flight
Engine noise eats the bottom end and the cabin is bright. What survives the trip.
- 10
Music for a writing session
A special case of music for focus. The line of a sentence is more fragile than the line of a function.
- 11
Music for the morning before anyone wakes
The half hour where one person is up and the rest of the house isn't. The room is the same; it sounds different.
- 12
Music for an unfamiliar city
Present enough to keep the walk steady, light enough not to compete with the signs.
- 13
Music for the morning of a deadline
The standard focus rules bend slightly. The brief is narrow and steep.
- 14
Music for the first day back from holiday
Re-entry. The first hour wants lo-fi; the rest of the day wants the focus room turned down two notches.
- 15
Music for an apartment with thin walls
You can hear the neighbours; they can hear you. The constraint turns out to be a teacher.
- 16
Music for someone working in the next room
One person is in focus mode; the other isn't. The right pick is, frustratingly, neither.
- 17
Music for the desk you don't usually work at
A café, a hotel room, a friend's spare room. The music has to do more work than at your own desk.
- 18
Music for the journey home
Different from the trip out, different from the last day. The journey itself is just transit, and the music can be patient about it.
- 19
Music for the post-lunch slump
The blood is somewhere other than the brain. The music doesn't fake the energy — it keeps the body in the chair.
- 20
Music for debugging
Writing is forward motion; debugging is search. The music for it has very little event.
- 21
Music for the long meeting you're listening to
A meeting where your turn is at the end. The music sits underneath the speaking voice without competing.
- 22
Music for the first week at a new job
Very little of what you do is the work you were hired for. The music shouldn't pretend otherwise.
- 23
Music for prep work and admin
The slow tilling of small tasks. The music can be slightly more present than focus-room music, because the work isn't asking for the full mind.
- 24
Music for a Friday afternoon at work
The real productivity has happened earlier. The job is to clear small things and leave the desk in a state that Monday will thank you for.
- 25
Music for a Monday morning
The body remembers the weekend more than it remembers the work. A slow ramp, not an immediate plunge.
- 26
Music for someone else driving
The road isn't your responsibility; the playlist often is. The negotiation is part of the brief.
- 27
Music for the empty office
The building is yours for the hour. Music has more room than usual, in every sense.
- 28
Music for letter writing
A particular album played while writing to a particular person will, for years, carry that person in it.