25-minute focus session for brainstorming with brown noise, after a difficult conversation

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• 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.