50-minute reading session with café murmur and a timer, when you want to be left alone

1 Before you start

• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.
• Choose one question to answer in this block, rather than a whole subject to cover.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.

2 While the timer runs

• If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.