50-minute exam revision session with a library and a timer, when you have already had a long week

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.

2 While the timer runs

• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.

3 When it ends

• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.