Focus session for portfolio work: 50 minutes, a fan or air conditioner, if you have done this a hundred times

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 in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.

2 While the timer runs

• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.