45-minute focus block for design work — a fireplace, before something difficult

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.

2 While the timer runs

• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to 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 desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

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