Focus session for design work: 45 minutes, plain quiet, when the weather has kept you inside

1 Before you start

• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• 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.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.

3 When it ends

• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.

4What to put on

plain quiet — No added sound at all. If you have a quiet room, that is usually better than any recording of one.