45-minute focus block for language practice — brown noise, when your attention is scattered

1 Before you start

• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• Plan to leave the last two minutes for writing down where to pick up next time.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.

3 When it ends

• Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.