We live in a society that makes it easy to be distracted from what’s important. But what a lot of people don’t realize is, we find it okay to remain distracted, and procrastinate. It’s our subconscious hard at work, and keeping out the distractions is the hard part.
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As a content producer, I find I have to be vigilant to keep distractions at a minimum, otherwise I become the dog watching for squirrels. When I sit down to write, I need a quite place, and if that’s no possible, I mentally push through the distractions. This is not easy and it takes hard work to keep the mind alert and active.
I want to give you 5 things that I do to remain focused on creating content that matters.
1. Know what you’re going to write, before you begin. We normally can’t just sit down and write without knowing what we’re going to write. When I sat down to write this post, I knew I wanted to write something about distractions while writing, or doing work.
Take the time to put together a simple outline. Keeping to a tight outline allows your mind the freedom to write within the topic you’ve chosen. Otherwise, distractions keep you from finishing your task.
2. Sit down and write. The hardest thing for most amateur writers is the writing part. Life happens, I get that. Sometimes content creators, like myself, allow life to happen. But, the main thing is to remain consistent. We have to be able to sit down and finish a project before we get up and leave the computer.
The desire to write, for me, is one of the greatest gifts God has given writers. We have something to say, but if we allow too much of life without any time to write, we’ll never accomplish the task of finishing. So, take the time, put out the distractions and write, don’t think just write!
3. Take a break. Taking a break is one of the best things you can do. When I finish a blog post I put it aside, do something else, then come back to it. You will find that taking a break allows your mind to rest and your thoughts to regather. Come back to your writing after a while, and you’ll discover you have fresh eyes to adjust anything that seems out of place. This is the time you can be distracted.
4. Read and Edit. This is a must. You cannot skimp on this one. I realize, that no all of my posts are perfect. I like to think they are. When you take time to read out loud each thing you write, you’ll find what works and what doesn’t.
I typically write like I speak. I want to make sure everything I convey in my work sounds as good spoken, as it does while reading. I also find that when reading out loud, commas end up in different places. I try and avoid commas. That is usually not possible. But if I can place a period where a comma goes, I find each sentence packs more of a punch.
Editing is more than just sentence structure, it’s creating something that makes sense and is easy to understand.
5. Publish. I don’t take a lot of time before I decide to publish. Once I have something written and edited, I want to get it on my website right away. So, I add my styling, an image and hit publish. Once I have it up, and people comment or I notice something later, I can fix and the post remains live. I believe it’s better to get your work out there, then fix as you get feedback. This way, people can get your work and be blessed.
How do you write? Do you follow a similar pattern? Share below, on Facebook or Twitter.
Jason (J.B.) Sisam. Best-selling Amazon author of the Christian Early Reader book, 
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