90-minute focus block for decluttering — brown noise, when nothing else has worked today

1 Before you start

• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• 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

• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.