Deep work timer: 45 minutes of brainstorming (brown noise), if you have five quiet minutes

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• 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.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.