One block you can repeat
Pick a block you have already survived twice. Forty-five minutes after dinner is more honest than a fantasy Saturday. Put it on the calendar as “sample”, not as “change my life”. The name keeps the session small enough to start.
Protect the block from chat. Close the extra windows. If the block is inside a shared home, say the end time out loud so other people can plan around it.
A start line and a stop line
Write the start line before you open a tool. “Open the form file and fix the empty name.” If you open the tool first, the tool will choose a different task. The stop line is a file state, not a feeling. “The error sentence is saved.”
When the time ends, stop even if you are close. The unfinished line becomes tomorrow’s start line. Extending “just this once” is how the block disappears next week.
Energy is a constraint
If you are tired, shrink the task. Rename files. Write the caption. Do not start a new design system at 23:00. A small honest edit keeps the chain. A heroic session often breaks it.
Sleep and meals are part of the plan. A study system that only works when you skip both will not last four weeks. Move the block earlier rather than adding a second one.
A weekly note of twelve lines
On the last day, write what you finished, what you did not, and the next start line. Twelve lines is a ceiling. Longer reviews become a way to avoid the file.
Keep the note next to the sample. Future you should not have to remember which folder was “final”. Date the folder.
Remote does not mean always available
If you practice beside other people, publish your hours in one sentence and keep them. Answering every ping trains everyone to interrupt the block. A delayed reply is a boundary, not a failure of kindness.
The same boundary applies to courses and communities. You can read them outside the block. Inside the block, only the start line is allowed.
Unfamiliar words? See the Glossary
