Deep work timer: 90 minutes of coding (forest at dusk), if you have done this a hundred times

1 Before you start

• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".

2 While the timer runs

• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

3 When it ends

• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.

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.