Focus session for reading: 50 minutes, a library, when you are somewhere unfamiliar

1 Before you start

• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• If your mind is already racing, write down the three loudest thoughts before you begin.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
• Lower the bar until starting feels almost silly, then start.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.