45-minute focus session for drawing with rain on a window, when you are waiting for something

1 Before you start

• 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.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

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.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

rain on a window — Steady rain is broadband noise with a slow natural rhythm. It masks speech and keyboard clatter without being interesting enough to listen to.