50-minute focus session for editing with forest at dusk, when you have been on screens all day

1 Before you start

• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• 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.