50-minute focus block for design work — café murmur, when you are at home and cannot settle

1 Before you start

• Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
• Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".

2 While the timer runs

• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

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.