All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

With that being said, a lot of bloggers (professional or otherwise) find time to unwind most of the time, well, still on the internet. Face it; we all love the internet, that’s why we’re all blogging in the first place. If any of you have an aversion against the World Wide Web, you won’t be here reading my blog posts. The combination of the concept of work and play in a single space is bound to distract many of us (yes, that includes me, unfortunately).

I bet you’ve found yourself losing sight of what you’re about to do at one time or another. Perhaps you’re in the middle of brainstorming for a new post when you surf over your favorite web site and forget about your job for a few hours until you take a gander at the clock and realize how much time you’ve wasted. Since you make your own hours blogging, there might also have been times when you put off getting things done until later.

However, it’s not only “play” that gets bloggers distracted. Many probloggers get sidetracked with viewing their blogs’ stats and advertisements. Sometimes they get too distracted with the monetizing aspect of their blogs that they forget all about coming up with great content. Come on, tell me I’m wrong.

Well people, if you’ve read my above descriptions and you can relate, then it might be time to shape up and get back on track. I do not claim to be a guru of getting rid of blogging distractions. As I’ve said, it’s a major trouble I put up with most of the time, myself. My mother says I’ve got the attention span of a seven year old and truth is that I quite agree. However, I believe that those times I had my act together, I’ve done things which benefited some (that’s what I’d like to think, at least). So, I got my wits together and prepared a list of what I think could help everyone not to get sidetracked.

1. Make a list

Lists are a common blogging method. Seeing that it’s so effective in the blogosphere, why not use it to curb blogging distractions? Make a list of your daily responsibilities. Print it out in multiple copies and put it in places which can easily be seen. Pin one on your fridge, in your daily planner, post one on top of your monitor, etcetera. In short, place it everywhere so you can get a constant reminder of what you’re to do to avoid “temporary amnesia”.

2. Work in a public space

You’d be surprised how much you can accomplish working in a public place like a café, especially if you work at home. Of course this method doesn’t exactly work for everyone. However, it does work for me at particular times. Working somewhere public forces me to focus and finish more quickly than I usually do at home. This works especially well whenever that nasty barista starts turning her nose up at me because I’ve been sitting idle at their café for hours at a time without buying anything.

3. Work where you can be alone

The opposite of the above, this one works for most people. There are days when even the slightest noise gets me agitated especially since I share a room with my sister. Get a feel of your mood on a particular day and work to its specifications. If you feel like you want absolute peace while working, move to one part of your house and mark it “off limits”.

4.. Get started early

Make use of that list you made earlier. As soon as you sit in front of your computer, don’t dilly-dally and get right on to business. I find that it helps getting done with my major responsibilities first before doing anything else.

5. Schedule, schedule, schedule

Set a time for relaxation and casual Internet surfing later and stick to your schedule. Let’s get real here; you need some time to relax so give yourself a few minutes of that each day. If you blog for money, then allot some time for blog monetization per day and use only that time to do so. Finishing tasks according to schedule could make you feel more relaxed at the end of the day.

6. Never forget how fun writing is

I think we all lose sight at times of how fun writing could be, especially if one does it for a living. We should all rekindle our love for writing regularly so we never forget. As for how to do that, well, that’s a subject for another post.

How about you? How do you avoid blogging distractions?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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