50-minute focus block for studying — a fan or air conditioner, after a long day

1 Before you start

• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
• Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
• Let go of the version of this task you imagined doing perfectly.
• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.

4What to put on

a fan or air conditioner — A constant mechanical hum with no variation. The lack of change is the point — nothing in it asks for your attention.