Focus session · language practice · 90 min
Focus session for language practice: 90 minutes, a stream, when you are too tired to try hard
90 minutes of language practice, with a stream and a note on what to do when you drift.
Press start. The timer keeps time so you do not have to look at a clock.
Loosen your grip on whatever you're holding, or imagine loosening it. Too tired to try hard is exactly the right amount of tired for this. Keep it simple: breath in, breath out, notice.
1 Before you start
- Make sure your chair is at a height where your feet are flat on the floor.
- If you are dreading it, make the first action physical: open the file, sharpen the pencil.
- Put your phone in another room, or in a drawer you cannot reach without standing up.
- Remind yourself that you are allowed to produce something mediocre in the first pass.
- Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.
2 While the timer runs
- If you start tidying your desk, that is avoidance. Sit back down.
- Notice whether you are working or performing work. They look similar from the outside.
- If a thought will not leave, give it one line on the page and return to the task.
- When you have drifted for the fifth time, that is still four returns. Keep going.
3 When it ends
- Put the notes you made where you will find them next time.
- Roll your shoulders and your neck before the next block.
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
4What to put on
a stream — Running water with small variation. Softer than rain and less repetitive than a fan.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.
If this block does not fit, try Focus session for decluttering: 90 minutes, plain quiet, if you have done this a hundred times, Deep work timer: 50 minutes of coding (rain on a window), if you are doing this in the middle of the day or Focus session for language practice: 90 minutes, distant traffic, when the house is busy.