A 50-minute block for admin and email, with café murmur, on a day that started badly

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.

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.