Writing
Eliminate These Distractions to Become a Prolific Writer
Helpful and practical tips for new writers based on experience
Introduction
Writing and written communication are essential leadership characteristics. With this understanding and awareness, I developed innovative ways to focus on my writing in order to be a prolific writer.
One key contributing factor to my writing practice is preventing distractions and time killers by meticulously monitoring nine common traps.
In this article, I share my experience, actions, and useful habits for success.
1. Social Media and Internet
If social media is not used consciously and in a disciplined way, it can be detrimental to the writer’s productive time. Browsing the Internet with a specific goal can waste a considerable amount of time.
One link to another link, and hours are gone without any notice.
This phenomenon is due to our brain’s wiring. Our brains love instant gratification, rewarded with small spikes of dopamine elevating us on a temporary basis.
This dopamine surge does not take long. Once we realize losing a considerable amount of time with no tangible achievement, guilt starts emerging and taking place as a secondary emotion.
Youtube
From my experience, one of the culprits is YouTube. As an entertainment medium, YouTube can be a big distraction and time-consuming.
Many of us love cat videos, viral clips, and amazing episodes cleverly designed by smart YouTubers.
There is, of course, value and place for YouTube however, if we don’t monitor it and use it consciously, it can be a terrible time-waster for writers.
The next one is Twitter. There is magic in reading tweets as they are short, e.g., in less than 140 characters.
However, tweets nowadays come with links to videos, pictures, and other internet resources. If you like some tweets, you may have the urge to retweet, reply to tweets or write your own tweets.
Twitter is an addictive platform.
The third one is Facebook. Similar to Twitter and YouTube, Facebook is also an attractive platform appealing to multiple senses.
The visual nature of Facebook keeps our attention longer. As Facebook is a friendly environment, we may have fuzzy feelings whilst communicating with our friends.
I know some friends who spend hours on Facebook, checking what their friends are up to, and get busy by liking and responding to their posts.
From my experience, here are some actions and habits to monitor social media and Internet use.
I monitor the use of social media. If I need to search for something, I stick to this one thing in mind. When I need to use Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin, I allocate a specific amount of time.
I set my alarm, for example, for 20 minutes in my unproductive time when my energy level is low.
I also develop the practice of intermittent media fasting. One way of improving this fasting is by using the principle of first create, then consume.
These practical actions for monitoring my time based on my priorities helped me save a substantial amount of time that I allocated to my writing practice.
2. Meetings
Both work-related and social meetings can be very time-consuming. As part of my leadership studies, I learned the importance of creating an agenda for each meeting and sticking to the agenda for a specific meeting.
In the corporate world, meetings are known as the most time-consuming activities if not monitored and practiced with discipline.
Social meetings can also consume a lot of time. Monitoring the time for social meetings is important for writers. Here are some actions and habits to monitor meetings:
I always go to social meetings well-prepared. For example, if I am meeting a friend at 9 AM, at the beginning of the meeting, I clearly point out that I have a 10 AM meeting or a specific commitment so I need to finish by 9:50 AM.
This has been a useful practice in valuing my time and my friends’ time. We can save not only valuable time but also better concentrate on the topics that really matter to us. We can reduce amounts of chit-chats and focus on the key points. It becomes a win-win situation.
3. Coffee Breaks
As a nature of my work, we have lots and lots of coffee breaks even though I am not a coffee drinker anymore. When a colleague or customer invites you to a coffee for 10 minutes, it usually ends up in an hour.
Actions and habits to monitor coffee breaks
One practical point I learned is to order the coffee on the phone before going to the coffee place.
I tell my coffee partner that I have a meeting in 10 minutes or need to write a report to be submitted in an hour or an email to respond to.
They may sound like excuses, but when I point out this in the beginning, then we are most likely to stick to a 10-minute break rather than spending an hour.
Each coffee break gives me at least 30 minutes which I can use for more productive activities such as writing or focusing on my work actions.
If something is important, it can most likely be covered in 10 minutes. If it is a big issue, then I propose a follow-up meeting with an agenda.
4. Feeding and Shopping
We all know that meal preparation, shopping for the meals, planning them, eating, and cleaning can take a long time.
Over time, I took a few actions and developed useful personal habits.
I eat one meal a day at dinner. I stay in a fasted state during the day. I don’t have to worry about breakfast and lunch. As my body became fat adopted, I didn’t feel hungry or tired during the day.
In fact, I am more alert and focused in a fast state. This practice saves me at least two hours of mealtime each day. I can allocate this time to my writing practice or other priorities.
In addition, I keep a list of my shopping on my smartphone. It rarely changes. In the past, shopping used to take 2 hours, but now I can complete my shopping in 15 minutes. This saved time from shopping usually goes to my writing practice.
Practicing the keto carnivore diet helped me save a lot of time, made my fasting easier and more efficient, and improved my focus and health, which has been very useful for my writing practice. More information about my customized diet can be found at this link.
I only use my diet as an example for my personal hacks. My point is you can simplify your feeding regime based on your preferred diet. Planning, preparing, executing meals, and cleaning the dishes with a conscious effort can help us gain useful time for our writing practice.
5. Television and News
Over the last three decades, I have not watched any TV and have not read any newspapers. This practice made me a happier and more productive person.
Television is widespread and attractive medium. In addition to addiction, it can also numb our brains.
Some friends tell me about their Netflix experiences ending up with 4 to 6 hours of watching some exciting episodes. It is their choice, and I respect it. However, I consciously choose not to spend 4 to 6 hours on TV shows or news.
The best way for me to stay current is to subscribe to reliable news sources in my interest areas and quickly browse them in my downtime.
Hearing about accidents and fatalities in hundreds of countries, thousands of cities, and locations every hour can be very depressing. This is an undesirable situation that can prevent becoming a prolific writer.
6. Smartphones
Smartphones can be very addictive. Text messages and ongoing alerts create psychological vulnerability. Constant alerts with bell sounds each time when a message arrives from people or apps can be very distracting.
This is related to our dopamine-hungry brain, which strives for instant gratification.
I took some actions and developed useful habits to deal with my phone use.
When I am working or writing, I put my phone in silent mode or flight mode unless I am waiting for an urgent or important message.
I learned to stop all notifications for smartphone apps. For example, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media apps can create tremendous amounts of unnecessary alerts.
Our primitive brain loves it with a constant feedback loop, but we need to use our prefrontal context to tame our reptile brain to be productive and sustainably happy in life.
Smartphone discipline is essential for writers.
7. Commute and Travel
Some of us commute to work and travel frequently. Getting to my workplace usually takes an hour of driving. Driving in the morning traffic is a stressful activity. While we are driving, we cannot read or write.
While driving, the only activity I take is listening to audiobooks or podcasts. This is useful when I must drive.
However, I choose to use the train for the usual work commute. This saved me two hours of my writing on my laptop on the train. For example, I finished writing two books by using the train instead of driving.
I also learned to write or catch up with my reading on the plane rather than watching entertainment units on the aircraft.
The entertainment units with a myriad of channels in some airlines can be very addictive. For frequent flyers, this can be a useful time-saving practice.
8. Family, Children, Parents, Relatives, Neighbours
Family is, of course, important. Our children are our most valuable assets in life. However, an undisciplined approach to family life can be time-consuming and stressful.
I used to have some neighbors ringing my doorbell and wanting to chat about their daily problems with no notice. They usually started asking whether I had two minutes.
Most of the time, these 2 minutes ended up in 2 hours. It was a hard lesson learned to monitor my time with my friendly neighbors. I love them dearly, but I prefer to have social chats at a convenient time.
As facts of life, we all experience that parents, children, relatives, and neighbors can be very demanding. Unless we prioritize our time, they may consume our time very quickly.
I took some actions to schedule my time with my family members, relatives, and neighbors for quality time.
Being honest and communicating with compassion was handy.
Everyone is important, but no one is more important than ourselves in a specific context. My point is that unless we look after ourselves for health, fitness, and sanity, we cannot look after others.
Being clear about our priorities and focusing on quality time rather than spending valuable time with argy-bargy can be not only stressful and unhealthy but also time-consuming for writers.
Management of family, relatives, and neighbors is a critical success factor for writers.
9. Email
I assume you expected this as a pandemic problem of our age. Email is a useful business tool. However, if it is not managed properly it can waste a lot of valuable time.
I learned to check my email at specific times of the day unless expecting something urgent and important. Urgent and important matters can be handled better face to face or on the phone rather than by email.
I usually use email as a follow-up tool in my work practice.
There are times we need to spend some time on email however they are usually exceptions. Regular email usage needs to be monitored properly by writers who aim to be prolific.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Being aware of these traps (distractions), regularly monitoring them, taking practical actions, and developing useful habits helped me gain substantial time to allocate to my writing practice.
As a bottom line, I want to remind you that saying yes to these traps means no to writing.
Distractions are the most dangerous barrier to writing. Removing all known distractions and not letting technology dictate my life made a great contribution to my writing practice.
The traps and distractions I mentioned not only steal our valuable time but also consume our mental energy, reduce motivation, and create more procrastination.
Most of these traps can constitute the so-called writer’s block due to brain drainage, which can be prevented by monitoring, taking necessary measures, and developing useful time prioritization habits.
As a best practice, removing distractions and blocking time, I aim to write a bad draft of at least 1,000 words in each sitting. This blocked time must be habitual. I also learned to keep my essentials on my desk.
For example, when I block a time to write, I turn off my phone, close my study door, have my water, tissues, paper, pen, and reference materials, and focus on writing which is the most important activity for the blocked time.
As mentioned in my previous leadership articles, I don’t manage time, I manage my priorities. Time management is a misnomer and can be demotivating and unproductive for some of us. If my priority is writing, then all other activities are temporarily dimmed and remain in the background.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
About the Author
I am a technologist, postdoctoral researcher, author of several books, editor, and digital marketing strategist with four decades of industry experience.
I write articles on Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope publications supporting 15,500 writers on Medium. You can join my publications requesting access here. You may subscribe to my account to be notified when I post on Medium. I share my health and well-being stories in my publication, Euphoria.
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Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include professional advice. I documented my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
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