90-minute exam revision session with plain quiet and a timer, when you have been on screens all day

1 Before you start

• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.

2 While the timer runs

• If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• 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.

3 When it ends

• 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.
• Stand up and move for at least two minutes. The break is part of the method, not a reward.

4What to put on

plain quiet — No added sound at all. If you have a quiet room, that is usually better than any recording of one.