Deep work timer: 50 minutes of planning (forest at dusk), when you want to be left alone

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.

2 While the timer runs

• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

3 When it ends

• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.

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.