25-minute focus session for research with a fireplace, before you go back to something hard

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.

2 While the timer runs

• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.

3 When it ends

• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

4What to put on

a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.