Focus session · practising an instrument · 90 min
90-minute focus block for practising an instrument — a stream, when you feel fine and want to stay that way
A timer, a short prep list, and 90 minutes to drill the hard bars.
90:00
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Nothing needs to be decided in the next few minutes. Park the decisions. Feeling fine is a good reason to do this, not a reason to skip it. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
- Promise yourself you will not check anything until the timer ends, including "just quickly".
- Close the door, or put headphones on, whichever signals "working" to the people around you.
2 While the timer runs
- Notice the moment your hand moves toward your phone. That moment is the whole skill.
- When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
- If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
3 When it ends
- Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.
- Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
a stream — Running water with small variation. Softer than rain and less repetitive than a fan.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.