Deep work timer: 90 minutes of thesis writing (white noise), when the house is busy

1 Before you start

• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.

2 While the timer runs

• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.

3 When it ends

• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

white noise — Flat across all frequencies and very effective at covering speech. Some people find it harsh after an hour; keep the volume low.