90-minute focus session for reading with café murmur, when nothing else has worked today

1 Before you start

• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.

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 start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.