A 45-minute block for coding, with forest at dusk, when you are cold and want to be warm

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.

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 you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.

3 When it ends

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.

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.