50-minute focus session for portfolio work with a library, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.

2 While the timer runs

• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• 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 catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

3 When it ends

• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.