Balance

Inhale twice through the nose, exhale long through the mouth.

Lowers tension fast; in a study, 5 minutes a day lifted mood more than mindfulness meditation.Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine 2023

In, hold, out, hold – 4 seconds each.

A steady rhythm, good before talks and exams. The effect is calm through structure rather than magic.

4 in, 7 hold, 8 out.

The long exhale activates the rest-and-digest system. Popular before sleep; the evidence is thin.

5.5 seconds in, 5.5 out – about 5.5 breaths a minute.

At this pace your heartbeat resonates most strongly (heart rate variability) – the basis of HRV biofeedback.Lehrer & Gevirtz 2014

Feel the breath, notice wandering, come back.

Coming back is the actual exercise – each time a rep for your attention.

Let your attention travel slowly through the body.

A core MBSR practice; after long study sessions it gets you out of your head and into your body.Kabat-Zinn, MBSR

Tap on every exhale, differently on the ninth – the app counts along.

Meditation and measurement in one: how often you lose count shows how collected you are.Levinson et al. 2014

Three sentences for moments when something went wrong.

After a setback, kindness to yourself helps you keep going more than self-criticism.Neff; Breines & Chen 2012

A timer with a soft bell – no guidance at all.

For those who already know how.

Write freely about your exam worries for 10 minutes. Nothing is stored.

Anxious students scored clearly better afterwards: the worries no longer clog working memory.Ramirez & Beilock, Science 2011

Read a pounding heart as energy, not danger.

People who tell themselves “I'm excited” instead of “I must stay calm” perform better under pressure.Jamieson et al. 2010; Brooks 2014

Examine a distressing thought like evidence: what speaks for it, what against?

The thought record is a core tool of cognitive behavioural therapy.

Note worries down and postpone them to a fixed worry time.

Rumination is limited to a time slot instead of disturbing your whole study day.Borkovec et al. 1983

Tense and release muscle groups – short form.

Well supported against tension and trouble falling asleep.Jacobson; Kurzform nach Bernstein & Borkovec

See five things, hear four … – back to the here and now.

Helps in acute panic: the senses pull attention out of the spiral of thoughts.

Stand up, stretch, loosen your shoulders, take a few steps.

A short bout of movement noticeably lifts energy and attention – better than the next coffee.

A timer that grows with you: note distractions instead of giving in, rate it at the end.

Concentration can be built like endurance – in small steps beyond your current span.

Tap as soon as the number appears. Measures reaction time and lapses.

The standard test of sleep research – sensitive to fatigue. Good for seeing when you're really alert.Dinges & Powell 1985; Basner et al. 2011

Tap the numbers 1–25 in order as fast as you can.

Trains visual search and gaze control. Honestly: you mainly get better at exactly this task.

Does the square from n steps ago light up again? The level adapts.

Challenges working memory. Whether it makes you smarter in general is disputed – as a concentration exercise it works.Jaeggi et al. 2008; Melby-Lervåg et al. 2016

Name the ink colour, not the word.

Measures how well you block out distraction (interference) – a classic of attention research.Stroop 1935