A 90-minute block for portfolio work, with a fireplace, when you are at home and cannot settle

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• 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.

3 When it ends

• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.