25-minute focus session for admin and email with forest at dusk, if you are sceptical about all of this

1 Before you start

• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• 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.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.