Focus session for practising an instrument: 25 minutes, café murmur, when you only have a few minutes

1 Before you start

• Get water now, so you do not have to get up in fifteen minutes.
• Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
• Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
• Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
• Put the thing you keep reaching for out of arm's reach.

2 While the timer runs

• If you feel restless, change your posture rather than your task.
• When you catch yourself re-reading the same sentence, stop and write down what you were looking for.
• When you notice you have drifted, do not restart the block. Just come back and carry on counting from where the timer is.
• If you are stuck, say the problem out loud. It changes what you can see.

3 When it ends

• Have a drink of water before you check anything.
• Look out of a window for thirty seconds. Your eyes have been at one distance for a while.
• 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.