“Evil is whatever distracts.”

“Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward.”
Franz Kafka

How ironic! And how the Muses must be laughing! After just penning a post about daily writing practice, I had one of those frustrating days where nothing went according to plan. No matter how I tried to get my butt in the chair, something came up that distracted me. Well, let me be more accurate and honest: I allowed myself to be distracted from what should have been my top priority.

First, there was a Web site issue I had to deal with, which involved planning for a call. Then there was checking email, because I was waiting for a response on a matter I need to resolve. Then there is a book-related online project that I jumped into without thinking much about what it might involve. You get the picture. And I’m sure all this sounds familiar. Whether you work at home as I do or at another site, whether you write full time or on the side, writing distractions are everywhere. And if you freelance and are on your own when it comes to organizing your time, then distractions can be especially dangerous — at least they are for me.

Some of the things sucking up my time today have deadlines attached to them, so action had to be taken. But looking back, I can see that would have been more efficient to bundle these secondary projects together and carve out a block of time for my book revision, which is what really should be my top priority. Instead, this received short shrift, which is not a great feeling.

What to do? What to do? At one point, I thought of simply giving in to the day’s distractions and putting off my novel revisions until tomorrow. But in the end, I realized that this was not a useful plan: I was just distracting myself from my distractions, which is really not a great idea. So, even though I was upset about one issue I’m dealing with, I
decided not to give in to my desire to read as a way of soothing myself. Instead, I took the high road and finally sat down and put in some productive time on my novel. I instantly felt better because I was doing what I knew all along I should be doing. Any tips on how to manage distractions? I’d love to hear them! Write on!