Last weekend I was at yet another 30th birthday party of a very good friend. I talked with the other guests.
One of the guests is also a long standing friend of mine, but one who I don't really had much quality time with in recent years. I came late and he had to leave early but I squeezed in a few minutes talking with him.
He is a fiction author, studied law, and works in that field. He recently had a baby. He is also programming a game which he intends to release in the Steam store. I talked to him and he said "I love working from home". I was like shaking my head in disbelief and amazement: What? How can you do that? With a child? I explained: "well you know I get distracted easily and I work with several customers and projects so if I work from home one project always keeps distracting me from the other. In order to keep work separated I have to work at the respective customer's office or from university".
To which he replied (paraphrased):
- Don't be a wuss. Just have will power to stay focused. There is no trick.
- Keep a list of what distracted you. Then work to remove those blockades.
- Disable your internet. Turn off notifications. Enable your flight mode.
- "but what if I need the internet to research something?" - Keep a list of what you want to research. Batch it. If you research during writing as an author you eventually end up on Wikipedia and then it's over. 🙂
- Try meditation. Even 10 Min daily will give you great results. He did learn that at university in Vienna, where they have access to "Vienna University Sports institute" (USI) course on that. It will keep your thoughts from drifting off and spinning into other areas.
You practice that by focusing on breathing, which is the most mundane, basic thing. If you can focus on that, you can focus on anything.
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