50-minute portfolio work session with plain quiet and a timer, when you are short on time

1 Before you start

• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

plain quiet — No added sound at all. If you have a quiet room, that is usually better than any recording of one.