A 50-minute block for admin and email, with distant traffic, when the weather has kept you inside

1 Before you start

• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• 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.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• 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.

4What to put on

distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.