A 90-minute block for reading, with a washing machine, when you are too tired to try hard

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.

2 While the timer runs

• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.

3 When it ends

• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.

4What to put on

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