90-minute focus block for brainstorming — a fan or air conditioner, when the day has been loud

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.

2 While the timer runs

• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.