Focus session for planning: 90 minutes, white noise, if you are doing this in the middle of the day

1 Before you start

• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

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.