90-minute portfolio work session with a fan or air conditioner and a timer, if you are fitting this around other people

1 Before you start

• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.

3 When it ends

• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.