45-minute focus session for brainstorming with birds at dawn, if you are doing this in the middle of the day

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

4What to put on

birds at dawn — Bright but not sharp. Better for early sessions than for late ones.