Subject: A few suggestions.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-08-02 23:09:00 UTC

I have been in the same boat time and time again. I click one link, then another, then boom! Two hours of potential writing time gone. Here are a few practices I've taken on in an effort to curb that. Give 'em a try.

Scheduling
Organize your time. "I'm going to write from this time to this time, have an hour or so to unwind and grab a bite to eat, then resume writing at this time before calling it a day at this time." Writing it down helps.

If you need to do research for a specific subject you might be covering, set aside an hour or so before hand. If you're in the middle of writing when you discover you need to look up a subject, write down what you want to look for on a piece of scratch paper. Then, set it aside until after you've finished your allotted writing time.

Disconnect
From the internet, I mean. If you're hooked into a modem or a router, unhook yourself. If you're on a wireless connection, turn it off. If you can't go cold turkey, I think there might be parental control softwares you can use to limit your internet usage to a certain amount of hours per day. But don't quote me on that one.

Don't push yourself
If you really don't feel like writing, then you shouldn't force yourself. You'll only end up with a lackluster product. Just try to relax, finish what you're doing, and set up a time to get some proper writing done in the future.

I would also suggest taking a look at Scrivener. It's a writing program specifically designed for writing projects of all stripes - short stories, novels, scripts, research papers, work reports, and so on. The aspect of it most relevant to what I've been talking about is its full-screen editing mode. It's just like it sounds: the project fills up the screen and can only be dismissed through the escape key. You can't just click out of it.

One caveat: Scrivener was originally created for Mac computers. They have a PC version, but I've never used it so I don't know how it compares.

Food for thought, anyway!

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