50-minute decluttering session with café murmur and a timer, when you are not sure this will work

1 Before you start

• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.

3 When it ends

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

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.