90-minute focus block for coding — a library, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• 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.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.