A 50-minute block for studying, with vinyl crackle, before you go back to something hard

1 Before you start

• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
• Decide what you will do if you get stuck: write the problem out, then move on.
• Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.

2 While the timer runs

• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If nothing is working, write badly on purpose for two minutes.
• If you are bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.

3 When it ends

• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
• Say the session is finished, out loud if you can. It marks the boundary.

4What to put on

vinyl crackle — A thin layer of surface noise over nothing much. Just enough texture to stop the room feeling empty.