11 Dec Last seen … staying focused
How much time do you fritter away on email? How many minutes are lost tweeting, poking, following and linking-in? It’s very easy to start your day and check your messages, and find that two hours have gone, and guess what, you’re still… replying to emails.
With my current writing project, I suddenly decide I must know a fact. I zoom into Wiki, dive into Google Books, find an obscure online library archive, take a left-turn into an intriguing blog, a u-turn back to Google Books, a quick look at how much the book would cost if I bought it on Amazon, and it’s lunchtime and I haven’t written a word.
Admittedly those forays (and they are like delving into a myriad other worlds) can illicit useful information: another book to read or timely advice from another writer. I recently found myself reading the American novelist Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent Q&A for writers. To avoid getting distracted, the computer where Kingsolver writes is not connected to the internet; she does that in another part of the house. That sounds like a grand idea.
But if that’s not possible for you, there are a host of apps you can download which will limit (or block) access to the internet. In fact many writers—including Naomi Klein (No Logo, Shock Doctrine) and Nick Hornby (High-Fidelity, About a Boy)—swear by Freedom. According to their blurb this ‘simple productivity application locks you away from the internet for up to eight hours at a time.’
There are others:
- Leechblock works with Firefox
- Benedetto’s StayFocusd targets Social Media addicts by limiting time spent on Facebook and Twitter
- SelfControl works on Macs and blocks access to incoming and/or outgoing mail servers
Some of these apps are free, others cost a few dollars. I reckon it’s worth the investment—and the few minutes to download and install. Just as parents demand that their children have screen-free days, we writers need off-line days. That’s right, not a tweet, not a sly squizz at your favourite website, not even a compulsive look at your inbox.
Just a day to write, and that’s it.
Thoughts?