45-minute focus block for admin and email — a library, if you are fitting this around other people

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.