25-minute focus session for admin and email with rain on a window, after eating too much

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• 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.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.

3 When it ends

• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Have a drink of water before you check anything.

4What to put on

rain on a window — Steady rain is broadband noise with a slow natural rhythm. It masks speech and keyboard clatter without being interesting enough to listen to.