One of my greatest challenges is sticking to my planned writing times and actually writing for the whole hour I set aside each day for that purpose.
The reasons are myriad.
- My phone buzzes when I get a text or facebook contact.
- I want to check for new emails
- I run a little late at “work” and use up some of my writing time
- the phone rings
- We have plans that conflict with my writing time
- I’m just feeling particularly ADD
My plan is to always write from 5-6 PM, for an hour, without exception, but of course life doesn’t work out that way. And even when I do, I rarely singlemindedly focus on writing.
I’ve considered setting aside an earlier time that tends to have fewer conflicts, and actually going somewhere else to write that’s out of the office.
Other thoughts – turning on my do not disturb mode on my iphone. Working in full screen mode on my mac. There are also apps like “Concentrate” that will force you to focus on what you are doing by blocking certain apps or sites on your computer. Or Isolator that blacks out everything but what you are working on.
What are your tricks for keeping your focus on writing?