It sounds so easy and simple; one might wonder why I would even write a post about this. Maybe you have been fortunate and have never been distracted while blogging. I probably will not believe you but who knows? 

The internet is full of shiny objects that want to take away your focus and place you in a blogging disadvantage in terms of getting your tasks completed.

It happens millions of times each day, someone starts out with good intentions but by the end of the day, they have accomplished very little, if anything at all. I have been there myself, which is why I am now a pro at avoiding this. Experience is one hell of a teacher.

It starts within your working environment. Like many, you are likely to have a screen full of activities going on during the course of your computing day.

Big mistake.

Those flashing updates from TweetDeck or Hootsuite are bound to grab your attention at some point. The power of 140 characters should never be underestimated. An update flashes in the upper right corner (or wherever you dock your update screen) and you see it is one of your friends.

A quick read of that update reveals that they are involved with something very interesting right now, so you veer off course to check it out. You may get back to your work in 20 to 30 minutes, if you are lucky.

A quick peek at your email informs you of an opportunity that just has to be checked out today because you may miss out. You end up on a landing page reading one of those long sales letters telling you everything about this product. You are captivated and spend more of your valuable time.

You have now lost nearly 2 hours, but are finally ready to start that blog post. Three paragraphs into it your iPhone or Blackberry rings. It is your pal from the old neighborhood, so you take the call with the intention of keeping it short.

Another 20 minutes goes by before you return to that post you were writing. Now you are lost and have to take a break and regain your thoughts.

While sitting back in your desk chair you overhear some “Breaking News” on CNN.

This can go on all day, and is likely the reason it takes some bloggers 3 hours or more to write a post.

Regain control of your workspace

Your blog is your business and there must be times when you are “working” and cannot be interrupted.

• Open only the windows necessary to write your post. You may even want to consider turning off that router or internet access.
• Turn off the television, it does nothing for your blogging but provide distracting noises.
• Outsmart your Smartphone by silencing it and placing it out of your line of sight.
• Check email at times when you are not writing or performing other blog related tasks.
• Let your family members know that you are unavailable for a block of time and prefer not to be disturbed.

These are all small things but it is the small steps taken that get you closer to where you need to be.

The world will still be spinning when you finish writing a post or two so focus on that and allot yourself a timeframe to get this accomplished. This way the breaking news will not be the fact that you spent all day writing a post… and it is still not finished.

Keep Blogging!