Actually if i do listen to music while i do my work, i would use some kind of relaxation type music or even classical turned to a background level.

And yes checking email all the time does drain away the time, for me i like to a million things at once too, as i think someone mentioned.

My biggest productivity loss is going on youtube. Another tip mentioned to me was to get a count down timer, elec or mechanical it doesnt matter.

And set it for say 40 minutes and start writing or working on your site and do that task till the timer goes off, nothing else.

steve

I’ve never tried to freelance though, but on how you explain it, that’s a bummer.

Some days I’m just in the zone and I think a bomb could go off and I’d just keep writing. Other days require silence. On the days when silence is actually distracting, I dig out my instrumental CDs – John Tesh and other quiet, lyrical types of things. The idea is calming and gentle background noise with no beat or words. I also use the random setting on my CD player to keep the music from getting predictable.

The Internet connection is a great idea! Disconnecting from the world does seem to allow me to focus better. I have slow dial-up connection. Using an online thesaurus is much slower than my trusty paperback one and it’s too easy to stray into doing something else.

Finally, if I have a blog article that just won’t come, I save it as a draft and come back to it another day.

Anyway I think one has to have a box of chocolate in his room for his thoughts to flow incessantly… and a water of course.