Focus session for decluttering: 90 minutes, forest at dusk, when you are short on time

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.

3 When it ends

• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.

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.