50-minute portfolio work session with a fireplace and a timer, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• 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.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.

3 When it ends

• Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.

4What to put on

a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.