25-minute studying session with white noise

1 Before you start

• Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
• When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Resist the urge to review the work straight away. Come back to it later with fresh eyes.

4What to put on

white noise — Flat across all frequencies and very effective at covering speech. Some people find it harsh after an hour; keep the volume low.