Deep work timer: 45 minutes of coding (a washing machine), when you have been on screens all day

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.

3 When it ends

• Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

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