Put your phone out of arm’s reach: when you can't get to your phone, it can't serve as a distraction. Phones are probably one of the biggest distractions when writing, so see how you can get rid of your phone, whether it's across the room, in a different room, or on airplane mode. Exit out of email, Google Calendar, and other distracting tabs: usually, I have a million tabs open on my computer. However, last month I realized when I sat down to write that I tended to get distracted by emails or planning stuff out in my Google Calendar. Now, I close out email and Google calendar when writing. Take a look at what tabs distract you and exit out of them when writing. If I need to research something, I set a timer in order to not go down a Google wormhole: we've all been there--one innocent Google search can become an hour long research fest where our initial search was about European time zones, but now we're looking at the best places to eat in Edinburgh. Stop yourself from falling down this Google wormhole by setting a timer when you search something. I set a timer for five minutes when searching and when the timer goes off, it's time to get back to work. Clean workspace: declutter the space around you so your writing desk displays nothing to distract you when writing. Get out emotional junk before writing: similar to getting rid of physical clutter, it's important to purge emotional clutter before writing. To do this, I freewrite before each session, which I outlined in the video above and the blog post on my writing process Don’t reread while writing: especially when drafting, it can be easy to get stuck rereading and editing what you've already done. However, you have your writing goals which (usually) won't be accomplished from rereading. Make sure you're actively moving forward and making progress. Make your breaks energizing: breaks spent on social media or in front of your computer screen make you tired and overwork your eyes. Instead, try to get away from your screen when you take a break. Go for a run or a walk, dance, do some yoga and stretch it out. Find what energizes you and incorporate it into your writing breaks. Figure out a quiet time in your household: eliminate distractions by finding your ideal environment to write in. For me, it's the quiet before the rest of my family wakes up. While we love our friends and family, they can become environmental distractions if we don't structure our writing schedule strategically. Livesprints/accountability: livesprints and accountability groups are a great way to make you sure you stay on track. I host livesprints every Sunday at 2pm EST on my channel if you want to see what I mean! Turn off all or almost all laptop notifications: at least on Macs, text notifications constantly pop up and distract me. Since I usually am either doing university work, stuff for my part-time job, or my writing and platform work on my laptop, there's no reason for texts to pop up on screen. I decided to put all my texting conversations on Do Not Disturb, except for messages from my family and other important people who might contact me in an emergency. Think of how you can optimize your laptop so you don't get distracted.
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AuthorI'm Angela Anne, a Young Adult contemporary writer committed to helping you achieve your writing goals + giving you writing inspiration. ArchivesCategories
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