45-minute problem solving session with distant thunder and a timer, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.

3 When it ends

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

distant thunder — Low rumbles with long gaps. Suits people who find sudden noises more distracting than constant ones.