50-minute writing session with café murmur and a timer, after a difficult conversation

1 Before you start

• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.

2 While the timer runs

• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.

3 When it ends

• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.