25-minute focus block for admin and email — a washing machine, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.

2 While the timer runs

• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

• Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.