TECH: Oh, the weather outside is tempting...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 27 Dec 2009

On another list, someone asked about keeping on track. Apparently the snow outside was distracting them, and they were having trouble keeping themselves focused on writing. My response...

Some notions that might help

1. I've found that most of the time I need to write down -- key words, snippets, bits -- of those ideas that are nudging at me. Once I do that, I can let go of them and they quit insisting on attention, because they are in my notes for later.
2. Howard Tayler talks about dividing up his work into tasks for Smart Howard and Dumb Howard -- and being honest with himself about times when he needed to just do dumb stuff. I have to admit this helped me, to relax and let myself do dumb stuff with a clear conscience when sinus trouble, headaches, and other stuff makes it difficult to focus on smart work.
3. Fairly often, when I'm having to push myself to do something, there's something wrong. There's a simpler way, I've skipped something, there's a problem that I haven't yet consciously noticed -- and I need to step back, take a second look, and find the loose edge that needs to be tacked down. Take care of that, and then things will move.

Deadlines, quotas, regular work habits, counting words -- sometimes those can help too. I think of them as ways to make progress visible.

How do you keep yourself on-track?

Back to work, Mike.