Distractions are everywhere these days. We carry a distraction machine to turn on at the slightest sign of boredom. We use computers (well, most of us) or tablets to write on. These tools, while useful, host a myriad of distractions ready to play at a moment’s notice through connections to the internet. And these distractions are leading us away from the meaningful work we must do to progress on our writing.
Email, Facebook, Netflix, take your pick. These companies covet our attention and hire legions of programmers to engineer sites to be addictive. Only one more minute on Twitter. How often have you said this and found yourself on it half an hour later?
For every disruption to a deep state of work, it can take upwards of twenty minutes to get back on track. If you are like me and only have an hour or so to write each day, any distraction can lead to a less productive day.
Last week we looked at defining a writing space where deep work can happen. But if we bring our distraction machines with us into this space they can eat away at our precious writing time. As mentioned before I use a rain app to define any space I’m in as a writing space. I do this not only for the white noise effect, but because I do not have to worry about a playlist ending or an annoying song coming on Spotify. It takes away one more reason to interact with my cellphone.
Smartphones are great when used for their designed purpose, and I have heard of some people who even write on their phones. For me, I have to put my cellphone out of reaching distance and on ‘Do not disturb’ mode to keep it from being a distraction. This makes it so I must get up and use it consciously. In a similar vein, I take my laptop off of wifi mode so that there is no internet connection. Nothing I need to do is more important than getting words on the page when I’m in my writing space.
However, when first starting out it might be helpful to set a hard writing period to prevent distraction. Say twenty-five minutes. During this time all you will do is write or work on your project. When the time is up you can look at your phone or check twitter or reply to emails. Then do another twenty-five minutes. After some time doing this you should be able to increase the amount of time writing till you’re using the whole time you’ve blocked off.
When sitting down to write my mind will come up with almost anything to derail me from the task. The room is dirty, and I need to clean it. Oh, I need to pay this bill. I’m so hungry now. These thoughts will subside if you refuse to give in to them after a while. And a way of ensuring you don’t give in is through consistency.
Consistency is central to deep dives (my term for doing deep work). This may have been beat to death in my first post, but consistency is key for me while writing. It is easier to get into a rhythm and fall into deep work when I practice writing every day. This practice also makes it less likely for me to use not being inspired as a reason not to continue my work in progress.
Make a date with yourself in your calendar (physical or digital) and don’t stiff yourself. Would a friend keep agreeing to meet you for lunch if you never showed up? Of course not. So don’t let your writing be the friend you ignore. Block the time out and keep to it. Again, if you combine this with, say, eating some luxury chocolate or drinking a special tea, it gives you more incentive to keep the date.
Another great way to meet your time blocks is to get an accountability partner. Twitter has the five AM writers group. Or get your spouse or roommate to work alongside you while you write. When we share our goals it puts pressure on us to stick with them. Even telling a friend what you want to accomplish that week and having to follow up with them at the end will help.
Remember that SMART goals contain five parts: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A goal of “I am going to outline an entire trilogy today” is very broad. When starting out something like “I will outline chapter 1 by the end of the week,” it is much better.
If distractions rob us of time to write, we will never reach our goals. Yet, if we put the internet away and don’t allow others to pull us into their drama, we have a good chance of getting words down. Good luck with your writing this week!