Amidst all the distractions of life, sometimes it’s hard to focus on writing. How do career writers do it? Here are some of the techniques I recommend:

• When you are plagued with anxiety over matters real or imagined, take some time off to deal with it. Don’t feel guilty. You need to get these things off your mind and allow yourself time to process the hurdles in life. This is a good time to work on things that require little thought, i.e. update mailing lists, write short blogs, file papers, do some online research, etc. Set yourself a goal when you’ll return to full-time work. If you have a contract with a definite deadline, this is even more critical. Suppose you worked in an office. You’d take time off to deal with a crisis. Same here. Do what you have to get done; take the time you need. Then go back to work.
• Know that inspiration will come again when you’re mentally ready. The creative process has many facets. Assimilating life’s lows and highs is one of them.
• Prioritize your concerns, and manage one problem at a time.
• Knowledge is power. Collect all the information you can about the problem so you’ll feel more in control.
• Program downtime into your schedule when setting deadlines. Plan not only for your vacation, but also for prep time and catch-up time afterwards. Give yourself a few days in case you catch a cold or need some unexpected time off for a family crisis. It’s best to have generous deadlines you can meet than to crush yourself into a frenetic pace.
• Email: Answer only those messages that require an immediate response in the morning and save the rest for later.
• Set a daily page quota. Do not deviate from your writing except for exercise breaks and meals until this quota is met.
• Use Caller ID when the phone rings to filter calls.
• Notify friends and family members about your working hours. Writing is a business. You have office hours same as other professionals.
• Writing comes first. Don’t open your browser, read listserves, or check out those interesting blogs until you complete your daily quota.
• Give yourself a reward for small accomplishments along the way, and one biggie when you send in your completed manuscript.

Some days it’s just hard to get going no matter how hard you try. The grass cutters come. The son/sister-in-law/friend calls. The sink stops up. It’s okay. Realize that you need to let go, that you must get certain things done, and you’ll make up the quota by the end of the week. For this reason, I set daily and weekly quotas. If you have to slack off one day, you’ll make it up another one, as long as you meet your expected page count by the end of the week. Life happens. Writers have to be disciplined, and part of that strategy is to allow for disruptions. But when you have a block of time where you can sit in front of the computer and let your imagination soar, get your writing done before anything else drops on your doorstep and give thanks for your good fortune.

How do you minimize distractions to accomplish your goals?

Well, I put up a brilliant comment this morning, but it got lost. Maybe I couldn't decipher the secret code to allow the post. I like your hints. I've found that I can work around normal everyday things like errands, emails, household chores, because I regard them as necessary breaks where I'm thinking about the scene I'm writing, or the next one. I don't have many plot details ahead of time, so I figure it still counts as 'work' if I'm working on plot points while I'm folding laundry.

Sometimes comments don't get posted; I don't know why. They must vanish into cyberspace.