Deep work timer: 90 minutes of exam revision (café murmur), when you cannot concentrate on anything else

1 Before you start

• Go to the toilet first. It sounds trivial until you are mid-sentence.
• Decide in advance that a bad sentence is still progress.
• Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
• Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
• Decide now what you will do when the timer ends. Otherwise the decision will eat the first five minutes.

2 While the timer runs

• When you finish a piece, pause for three seconds before starting the next. It keeps the pace honest.
• If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
• If you feel the urge to check something, write it on the paper beside you and keep going. Deal with the list afterwards.
• When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.

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.
• Take the break away from the screen, even if it is just the other side of the room.

4What to put on

café murmur — The blur of other people talking, with none of the words close enough to follow. Some people concentrate better with a low level of company.