90-minute focus block for data work — a library, when you cannot concentrate on anything else

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• 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 your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

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.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

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.