Focus session · practising an instrument · 90 min
Focus session for practising an instrument: 90 minutes, a fireplace, when you have been on screens all day
90 minutes of practising an instrument, with a fireplace and a note on what to do when you drift.
90:00
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. After a day of screens, the eyes and the shoulders need this first. We'll go through it in order, without much decoration.
1 Before you start
- Clear the surface in front of you down to the thing you are working on.
- Remember that motivation usually arrives after starting, not before.
- Take one slow breath before you press start, so the session has a beginning.
- Give yourself permission to stop when the timer ends, even mid-sentence.
- Write down the one thing you are going to do, in a single sentence, before you start.
2 While the timer runs
- If the task suddenly feels impossible, make it smaller rather than stopping. One paragraph. One function. One row.
- 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 bored, the boredom is usually the last thing before something clicks.
- When you get an idea for something else, park it. Do not follow it.
3 When it ends
- Decide whether the next block is the same task or a different one. Do not drift into it.
- If it went badly, note one thing that worked anyway. There is usually one.
- Note what you actually got done, not what you meant to get done.
4What to put on
a fireplace — Crackles and a low roar underneath. Warm, irregular, and undemanding.
This page is a tool, not a course. Nothing is tracked, nothing is saved, and nobody is told whether you finished.