45-minute reading session with a fan or air conditioner and a timer, when your attention is scattered

1 Before you start

• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.

2 While the timer runs

• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.

3 When it ends

• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.