Happy Friday everyone. I’d like to introduce you to my new best friend who spends his days sitting on my virtual desktop.
Isn’t he cute?
Don’t be fooled. He’s a villainous task master. But he keeps me productive.
Don’t worry. I haven’t lost my mind. The orange is the icon for a Mac ap called Concentrate. When I turn it on, it locks out my internet and email account and anything else I don’t have the self-control to avoid when I get stuck while writing. Or not just stuck. Sometimes while writing I’ll want to search for a better word or research an element, so I’ll log onto thesaurus.com or google the element and before I know it I’ve completely lost my train of thought.
Of course, I could just click the orange then click done, and voila, I’m back in, but I’m resisting the temptation.
In fact, I called the orange my friend, but I like to think of him as my arch nemesis. When you engage the ap, you can set it to silence or any number of sounds for a length of time of your choice. I set it to “tick, tick, tick” for 60 minutes.
I know, I know…I thought it would drive me crazy, but it doesn’t.
It’s like a ticking bomb, spurring me to rescue my heroine from danger before the bad guys get the upper hand. Then every fifteen minutes this male computer voice whispers, “You’re doing great. Keep going!”
It sounds so creepy that it makes me laugh every time. I think of it as the villain goading me, laughing sarcastically.
Highly motivating when writing suspense. Ah the games we writers play!
Your Turn: Do you use any tricks or rewards to keep you on task?
P.S. If you missed my special post yesterday, and want to do some shopping for your Valentine’s reading, scroll down or click older posts. I’ve included some valuable coupon codes for extra savings.
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