50-minute focus session for language practice with a washing machine, when you are waiting for something

1 Before you start

• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• 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".

2 While the timer runs

• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• It is fine to stare at the wall for a minute. That is often where the answer is.

3 When it ends

• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.

4What to put on

a washing machine — Domestic, mechanical, and oddly steadying. The sound of something else being dealt with.