Focus session · practising an instrument · 45 min
45-minute practising an instrument session with a train carriage and a timer, when you only have a few minutes
Sit down, press start, and drill the hard bars for 45 minutes. A single class period, the length most people can hold before the quality drops.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
There is nothing to get right here. Nothing is being scored. A few minutes is the whole requirement. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
- Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
2 While the timer runs
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- 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.
- If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
3 When it ends
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
- Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
a train carriage — Rhythmic, low, and slightly rumbly. Many people find the motion-and-noise combination easier to work to than silence.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.
If this block does not fit, try 25-minute focus session for practising an instrument with brown noise, when you have tried everything else, 90-minute planning session with white noise and a timer, if you are new to this or A 90-minute block for applications and forms, with café murmur, when you want to be left alone.