Focus session for portfolio work: 45 minutes, brown noise, when you have been putting it off

1 Before you start

• Close every tab that is not needed for this one task. Not minimised — closed.
• If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.

3 When it ends

• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.