45-minute decluttering session with a fan or air conditioner and a timer, when you are somewhere unfamiliar

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".

2 While the timer runs

• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.

3 When it ends

• 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.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.