Studying fails in a specific way: hours pass, the book was open, and nothing can be pointed to. Blocks fix the pointing. Each one has a topic, a length and a timestamp, and at the end of the night the ledger says what you actually covered.
The description is the topic, written narrowly: “Chapter 8 practice problems 1 to 12,” not “chemistry.” Use the category for the subject so that search can later show you every block you ever spent on it. A block with a narrow description is hard to drift out of. A block called “study” is not a block.
| Task | Tier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flashcards, vocabulary | 2 or 3 | Recall fades fast; short blocks, several a day. |
| Reading a chapter | 3 or 4 | Long enough to finish a section, short enough to stay awake. |
| Problem sets | 4 or 5 | Setup cost is high; do not stop after one problem. |
| Writing an essay draft | 4 | One section per block. The end of the block is the end of the section. |
| Past papers under time | 6 | Match the real exam. Two hours, no pause. |
| Starting when you do not want to | 1 | Three minutes. Open the notes. That is the whole task. |
The app rolls the exact minutes inside the tier's range, so a Tier 4 might be 26 minutes today and 37 tomorrow. You choose the size; the clock chooses the number.
A break in the app has a fixed length you choose, and each minute earns 0.40 Exp. That makes rest part of the record rather than a hole in it. Ten minutes after a reading block, twenty after a problem set. Start the next block and the break ends, so you never overrun by accident.
| Block | Tier |
|---|---|
| Biology: re-read yesterday's summary | 2 |
| Biology: chapter 8 questions 1 to 12 | 4 |
| Break: walk, water | 10 min |
| Chemistry: organic mechanisms flashcards | 3 |
| Chemistry: 2019 paper, section B, timed | 5 |
| Break: dinner | 30 min |
| Biology: mark chapter 8 questions, note errors | 3 |
Five study blocks, two breaks, a clear list of what was covered and what was not. Tomorrow's first block writes itself from the errors noted in the last one.
New to the method? Start with what is timeboxing. Unsure about lengths? See how long a timebox should be.