50-minute focus block for admin and email — forest at dusk, when nothing else has worked today

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• 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.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.