25-minute focus session for applications and forms with a washing machine, when you are somewhere noisy

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.

3 When it ends

• 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.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.

4What to put on

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