50-minute focus block for research — birds at dawn, if you are doing this instead of scrolling

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

2 While the timer runs

• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.

4What to put on

birds at dawn — Bright but not sharp. Better for early sessions than for late ones.