A 25-minute block for decluttering, with forest at dusk, when you are not in the mood

1 Before you start

• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

3 When it ends

• 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.
• Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.

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.