A 90-minute block for admin and email, with a washing machine, before something difficult

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.