A 25-minute block for practising an instrument, with brown noise, if you are tired of apps

1 Before you start

• Set the timer where you can see it, or where you can deliberately not see it.
• Decide that today's session does not have to be good. It has to happen.
• Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
• Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.

3 When it ends

• Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
• Write one line about where to start next time. Future you will be grateful.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.

4What to put on

brown noise — Lower and softer than white noise, closer to a waterfall heard from a distance. Good if white noise feels too hissy.