45-minute focus session for portfolio work with café murmur, when you are on your own

1 Before you start

• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• 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.
• 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

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.