25-minute admin and email session with a fireplace and a timer, when you are somewhere unfamiliar

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

3 When it ends

• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.