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Archive for the ‘distractions’ Category

The New Year at its most powerful is a time for reflection and a time to think about where you want to put your focus.  The holidays are often jam-packed with travel, planning, buying, eating, interacting, negotiating, and not much quiet time. The first week of the New Year may reveal that it’s harder to [...]

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Did you think you had much of your shopping done for the holidays, but now you can’t find key presents? Are you wondering where that stocking- stuffer stuff is?  In the multiple piles of boxes that you have around your bedroom and basement? Did you really buy them…or maybe not? Did you schedule your holiday gathering [...]

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If your goal is to work on your dissertation or your article, what gets in your way and eats up your time and energy? Every writer can find a million more important things to do, such as watching all the episodes of the first season of Downton Abbey in one day.  But what else derails [...]

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Is there a writer who isn’t lured and waylaid by the distractions of the internet and email? Is there a writer who hasn’t written about those same distractions? How about you? How well did you do today? Did you stay on task and reach your writing goal for the day? Or did procrastination and Facebook [...]

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 Mental toughness, self-control, willpower, grit— I turn again to these compelling strengths. Why? Because distractions, especially electronic distractions, complicate the writer’s life.  The struggle for self-control over distractions takes up more and more of your mental space.  What can you use to free your mental space in order to concentrate on your writing? What can [...]

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A Saturday alone is a gift.  My husband is gone for the weekend, and I am writing. As a reward to writing first, I promised myself a bit of email-inbox decluttering. To see if I should read it or delete it, I clicked on Gretchen Rubin’s “5 Mistakes I Continue To Make in My Marriage.”  [...]

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What could help you have an easier time starting to write and sticking with the writing? In the new book Willpower, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney present research that willpower is limited, in part because you use the same resource for so many different things.  Since you can’t [...]

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When did you first hear of “decision fatigue”? Perhaps, like me, it was when the New York Times Magazine published an article on decision fatigue and you started getting emails from your friends and family with links to that article.  In fact, you probably received many links, and maybe the term “decision fatigue” has even [...]

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 In a recent blog, I sang the praises of writing whenever you are taking a plane somewhere.  The quiet, distraction-free atmosphere makes flying perfect for writing, or so it seems to me.  I heard from a dissenting reader. She said, “I’d love to be able to devote myself to writing while on a plane, but [...]

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Are your children home on vacation from school?  And you’re trying to keep an eye on your children, as well as make headway on your writing project? How’s that working for you? During the school year, most academics teach and try to write.  Both teaching and writing are critical for an academic’s success and are [...]

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