So I have a problem with focus sometimes. My mind drifts thither and yon. I have a lot of interests, and it can be hard to stay on-task, at home, at work, anywhere. My “Misc” posts are all about that. Whatever’s in front of my nose and on my mind. But they lack depth.
I’m writing this in a program called JDarkroom, whose premise is this: in eliminating the “multitasking” aspect of working on a computer, one can spend all one’s energies on the writing. This is not a bad idea. Typically what I end up doing to find focus is to get up and walk around, or maybe have some more caffeine. Or simply to shut everything else down. Email, twitter, RSS, IM. These are intrusive technologies by their nature. Shutting them off has done wonders for me.
For a whole four minutes I’ve been writing in JDarkroom. Did it work?
No idea. I’ll check my email now.
Hah! Funny.
Actually, no, I think I’ve said what I wanted to say with this post. I’ll be interested to see if JDarkroom can help me do longer-form writing. That’s where I have a harder time.
one comment...
It seems we have similar work habits. One of my strategies is to write longhand first and then type later, which also helps with the editing process.
JDarkroom sounds useful, though; I may have to give it a spin…