Focus session · practising an instrument · 50 min
50-minute focus session for practising an instrument with distant traffic, when you are doing this for the first time
50 minutes on practising an instrument — slowly, with the metronome. Fifty minutes, the length of a therapy hour, with ten minutes off afterwards.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Put both feet flat on the floor and let them take some of the weight. If this is your first go, stay with the plainest version of the instructions. We'll be efficient and then you can get on with your day.
1 Before you start
- Decide what counts as done for this block. "Two pages" is better than "make progress".
- If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
- Turn off notifications for the next block, not just to silent.
- Accept that the first five minutes will feel like wading. Wading counts.
- Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
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.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
3 When it ends
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
- Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
- Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
4What to put on
distant traffic — A low continuous wash from a road you are not on. Familiar and easy to stop hearing.
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 50-minute focus block for admin and email — plain quiet, if you are sceptical about all of this, 50-minute research session with distant thunder and a timer, when you want to be left alone or 50-minute applications and forms session with distant traffic and a timer, after a long day.