45-minute portfolio work session with vinyl crackle and a timer, when you feel restless rather than tired

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• 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.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.

3 When it ends

• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.

4What to put on

vinyl crackle — A thin layer of surface noise over nothing much. Just enough texture to stop the room feeling empty.