25-minute focus session for practising an instrument with forest at dusk, on a low-energy afternoon

1 Before you start

• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.

2 While the timer runs

• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

4What to put on

forest at dusk — Birds settling, leaves moving, nothing sudden. It works because it sounds like a place you can safely ignore.