50-minute focus session for writing with brown noise, after a difficult conversation

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.

2 While the timer runs

• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.