90-minute focus block for planning — forest at dusk, when you need something unremarkable

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

2 While the timer runs

• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.

4What to put on

forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.