Focus session · language practice · 90 min

A 90-minute block for language practice, with brown noise, when you are not sure this will work

A single 90-minute block for language practice — repetition rather than novelty.

90:00

Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.

Let your next exhale be a sigh, if a sigh is what's waiting there. Not being sure it will work is a perfectly good reason to try it once. Straight through, at a normal pace.

1 Before you start

  • Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.
  • Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
  • Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
  • Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
  • Dim the screen slightly. Bright screens make long sessions harder than they need to be.

2 While the timer runs

  • If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
  • If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
  • When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
  • If your attention keeps sliding, shorten the next block rather than abandoning this one.

3 When it ends

  • Do not immediately open the thing you were avoiding. Give the block a proper end.
  • If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
  • Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.

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.

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