25-minute exam revision session with a fan or air conditioner and a timer, if you have done this a hundred times

1 Before you start

• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.

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.