90-minute focus session for language practice with a library, when you are somewhere noisy

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• When the timer feels too long, look at it less. The clock is not the task.
• The first urge to stop usually arrives early. Sit through it once and the second one is quieter.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.

4What to put on

a library — Almost nothing: distant footsteps, a chair, a page turning. Useful if you want the feeling of a room where work is normal.