Small rooms, long work

The rooms where good work happens are almost always disappointing to look at. They are too small, slightly too warm, and contain one chair that has been sat in for a very long time.

This is not romance about hardship. It is about option count. A room with fewer possibilities gives your attention fewer places to go, and attention, given somewhere to go, always goes.

Set the room up once so it makes one behaviour easy. The book open on the desk. The instrument out of its case. The file already on screen when the machine wakes. Every second between arriving and starting is a second in which a better idea can talk you out of it.

Then stop improving the room. The upgrade impulse is procrastination with a receipt. A small room you use beats a good room you are still preparing, and the work does not know the difference anyway.