Deep work timer: 45 minutes of thesis writing (a fan or air conditioner), when you feel restless rather than tired

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• 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

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.