Deep work timer: 45 minutes of exam revision (brown noise), when you want to finish something

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Tell yourself the goal is time spent, not output produced.
• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Expect to want to stop at about the eight-minute mark. That is normal and it passes.
• Have a piece of paper beside you for the thoughts that will try to interrupt.

2 While the timer runs

• If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
• 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.
• If you are suddenly sleepy, stand up for ten seconds and sit back down.

3 When it ends

• Write down the question you could not answer, so it has somewhere to live.
• Leave the file open if you are coming back. Closing it makes restarting harder.
• Leave the desk tidier than you found it. Two minutes now saves ten later.

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.