Focus Lamp

The challenge

How do you stay focused while learning a new skill? To find out first-hand, I spent three weeks learning clay pottery at home — ending every session with meticulous notes on what helped and what broke my focus. The patterns were clear:

• Planning sessions in advance (when, and for how long) made it easier to start and to stop
• My phone was the single biggest distraction
• Keeping track of time without the phone was nearly impossible
• Alarms helped — but gave no sense of time remaining at a glance

Sketching the idea

The insight: I needed ambient time — visible without being demanding — and a reason to put the phone in another room.

Inspired by a small battery lamp that switches off after a set time, I sketched a desk lamp with a built-in timer: twist to set the session length, press to start. As time passes, the light gradually dims; when it turns off, the session is over. You always know roughly where you are — without ever checking a clock.

Building a prototype

I built a working mock-up around the battery lamp that inspired the idea, stacking laser-cut cardboard layers like 3D-print slices — much faster to iterate than actual printing. The base’s inner diameter matches the donor lamp, so the electronics simply nest inside.

Testing

I used the prototype through my own study sessions to evaluate the twist-and-press controls and the overall shape and size on a real desk.

Watch the prototype in action ↗

3D CAD model

To pin down proportions and materials, I modelled the lamp in CAD — partly for a better representation of the idea, and partly because I couldn’t help myself.

Next steps

This is a work in progress. The next milestone is a functional prototype — light, timer, and controls working together — to test with other learners and iterate from real feedback.