Put it down

Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by. The time has come, and we’ve reached the last week in our November series… But before we get into that, let me say how excited I am to hear how many of you are done (or nearly done) with your NaNoWriMo projects! It’s a huge accomplishment, and you should be proud. Seriously. Even I’ve never done it. I mean, I haven’t tried, but still. ;-)

All month long, I’ve been telling you guys some of the ways that I get myself in the zone for my writing. It’s all been about finding the right things to listen to, the right location, and even the right position, to make sure we stay in the zone and can write to our heart’s content. And this week, I have two of the most important ones.

#6: Put the phone away

I know how difficult this is to do. Believe me. In fact, most of the time I really hate doing it. I like to have my phone on me, I like to be able to contact people. I like to be able to distract myself with it, if I want to.

But that’s exactly why it needs to be put away, during writing time. At least until you’re highly disciplined with it, and can force yourself not to pick it up every time you want to.

Especially with the onslaught of smart phones, it’s increasingly difficult to set them down and do what needs to be done. There’re games on there! There’s texting. There’s internet. There’s fun stuff to do—most of which, if we’re being honest, could also be done from your computer, and on a bigger screen. But that’s neither here nor there.

Thing is, when it’s writing time, we can’t afford the distraction. It’s better for us to focus, to keep our minds on the task at hand, especially during writing time. For most of us, it takes a lot of concentration to be able to get those words on the page. The last thing we need is a cell phone distracting us from getting those words down. Especially during a month like this.

As we get deeper into the holidays, this point becomes even more important. There are already a million distractions, all around you. Now the holidays are there too, nagging, constantly reminding that you now have holiday things you need to do, on top of everything else.

That phone is just one more thing you don’t need to have in your way.

So put it down. Turn it off, if you have to. At the very least, leave it in a room where you’re not, so it can’t do as much harm.

It’ll help, once you get used to it. At first, it might be a little weird not having that little device in your pocket. You'll get used to it though. Promise.

[love]

{Rani Divine}