25-minute drawing session with brown noise and a timer, when you are not sure this will work

1 Before you start

• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.

3 When it ends

• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.