Deep work timer: 45 minutes of editing (a washing machine), when you are doing this for the first time

1 Before you start

• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.

4What to put on

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