Writing slowly

Yesterday, I tried to be such a good girl. I sent my friend a birthday email before 7 am. I walked the dog before I dropped my daughter at school. I did visit a friend for a coffee, but only stayed my allotted time. I went home, did some housework until 1pm which was the time I had set to start work. Windows open, fan on, drink by my side. I was ready for action. 

I wrote a couple of lines, my thoughts were flowing - I may be running late on this project but I was in the zone. So what happened? Life.

The phone rings. I want to ignore it but of course it could be school so...it wasn't. It was someone telling me again about PPI. Never mind. I go back to the computer. It's takes me a few minutes to think about where I am and then I make the instant mistake of clicking emails. Fifteen minutes lost, but I comfort myself that I have at least submitted some work to a publisher. 

Back to the grind. I write a few lines.  

The neighbour called. I resisted my Northern upbringing, I did not invite her in. I explained I was working and I had to get back to it, which of course resulting in the 'lucky you' speech. If you work from home you have probably heard it. Lucky lucky you, picking your own hours, nice and relaxed etc. yeah it would be if wasn't for the interruptions. 

I sit down and of course end up checking those bloody emails again, a quick look at twitter but, I managed to resist Facebook.

My two hour focused writing slot finished, I needed to pick my daughter up from school and I've written about half a page.

Unfortunately, whenever something interrupts you from your writing, your concentration is broken and you lose time as your mind tries to recover that productive state you were in. And, of course, you also lose time dealing with whatever distracted you.

My next priority is to get a new battery for my laptop.  If I really need to concentrate, I sneak off to a coffee shop or the local library and find a corner. I don’t mind minor background noise. And bizarrely sometimes you get a lot less interruptions when you are out.