Last year I worked feverishly on a product to help me and you focus more and cut out the things that distract us. I called it Focus. I never released it because I ran into a few tech glitches in C++ and decided to take a break. That gave me time to work on Buckets, through which I discovered the joy of Jawaya. Buckets will be back–it’s a fluid way of organizing your thoughts quickly, saving them to buckets, and sharing the buckets.
Seth Godin blogged about distractions today. He basically says that if you’re reading an article or playing a game, you’re getting satisfaction but you’re not working. You’re not making. You need to make. Be a maker.
It’s not a new thought, but it’s an important one to remember.
Close the browser. If you need it for work, only use it for work. The internet never sleeps. It’s always there, and will be the same big black-hole time-sink when you get back. And you will, of course, come back.
Why?
Because you need your dose of self assurance. That shared experience with someone on Facebook for some reason matters to us. That email from a friend, that validation in a comment from the blogger, that sense of triumph when you know 100 people have read your stuff, that sense of control when you’ve read 15 articles about your industry.
Meanwhile, your industry is eating your lunch, taking your customers, releasing their products, getting your press.
Get back to work. Be a maker.
Go now.
[…] Charlie Crystle developed an app called Focus which monitored and cut off specific communication channels. His […]