When start putting your thoughts in your blog, there could be various sources which attempt to distract you from writing thereby disturbing your concentration and further you might end up losing some of those thoughts.
Hence as a blogger/freelance writer you should always make sure that when you write, you keep yourself away from distractions. Now many of you might suggest turning off the internet completely as one of the options but I won’t suggest that because during writing on a topic, you may need to google something or check some links or something else on the internet. So let the internet remain on and try out the other steps which I mention below :-
Use Writing Tools
Maki recently posted about Dark Room, a tool which he uses to write his posts without any distraction. Similarly there could be many other tools which help you focus only on your writing and stay away from distractions.
Inform Your Family And Switch Off Phones
If you live with your family, it is better to inform them that you are about to start writing a post and you don’t want to be disturbed for the next one hour or so. Switch off your cellphone and in case you have a land line phone at your desk or in your room, place the receiver aside. However I won’t suggest you to do that if thats the only land line at your house, for obvious reasons.
Turn Off IMs and Twitter
Yes, you should sign out of your Instant Messenger and also, if you use a twitter client like twhirl, then exit out of it. IMs and twitter can be one of the major source of disturbance during this period.
Sign Out From Your Email
If you are in the habit of remaining signed in, in your email then its better to sign out of that. Thats because most of the web-based email apps now-a-days automatically refresh themselves and if a new email pops up, it is sure to disturb you for a moment and might further distract you if its an important email.
Hence through these methods you can ensure that you give your 100% when you write a post.
I’d love to hear from you the methods you adopt to write in a distraction free environment.
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Good tips. Another thing is to take a break if you are getting stuck for words and cannot progress. A cup of tea or a walk will help. Also, I agree with keeping the internet running since you will need to browse and check stuff when writing a blog at least I do.
good tips but is there any medium by which i am able to reach my friends and other bloggers
?
Ajay, thats the point. When you are writing there is no need to contact anyone else.
Nice tip Jeet. When none of the above work, disconnect and get work offline.
Hey, I like to think that I’m multitasking, like Windows. Probably this is why I get stuck sometimes and need a reboot
Great Post. It is important to write and work focused.
Seems to be a bit too much isolating oneself so much to write. I find words just flow when I start blogging and that too with music playing on my system, the TV running and even with my wife talking to me, I am still able to get work done.