A 90-minute block for research, with forest at dusk, when you feel fine and want to stay that way

1 Before you start

• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• 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".
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.

3 When it ends

• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.

4What to put on

forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.