Blogging How-To »

As I type this, I have about five drafts on this blog alone that need to be completed. I have content readily available, yet it is the motivation that I lack. In fact, I typed the first two sentences of the post, saved the draft, and told myself I’d come back to it later. Well, it’s been about two weeks now and I’m just now sitting down to finish it off.

Shut Down Your Distractions

Stop checking your email every seven minutes. Put up an away message on your instant messaging clients while you’re doing work. Physically remove your cellphone from the room. Do whatever it takes to remove yourself from things that will distract you. With no distractions, there’s nothing left to do but work.

Use LeechBlock

LeechBlock is a Firefox plugin that stops you from visiting certain sites at specific times of the day. If I didn’t have LeechBlock installed, I’d never get any work done. I have it set to block the sites below from 9AM to 6PM. Doing so allows me to work a full-time shift without interruption.

Sites I currently block:

• Digg, Reddit
• YouTube, Revver, Break
• Digital Point, 4815162342
• Twitter, Facebook
• Netvibes, Wikipedia

LeechBlock at Mozilla.org

Work in a Quiet Environment

How can you possibly work if you can’t think? Shut off the TV while you work. I don’t care if the Price is Right is on or Judge Judy is about to lay the smack-down; you don’t need to see it if you’re supposed to be doing work.

Also, try listening lyric-less music. Classical music has been shown to increase productivity and concentration. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra works surprisingly well for me. Try it and you’ll be surprised at the results.

Write the Post Out by Hand

This is one approach I hardly use, but it is, by far, the most effective method of completing a post without any distractions. Grab a few pieces of paper, a pen, and go outside. The novelty of getting away from the keyboard and writing on a pad never wears thin.

Reward Yourself

When I have a post that I really, really don’t want to write, I always resort to rewarding myself. I’ll work for an allotted amount of time or type a certain number of words before I can take a break. It works, but at the same time it feels like a punishment.

What methods do you use to finish work you just don’t want to do?

Featured, Weekly Updates »

Top 3 New WordPress Themes of the Week

1. Secondary – (Live Demo) – Secondary is two-column fluid unique design. There are quite a few features you don’t see everyday on a typical WordPress theme design. Check it out.
2. Vita – (Live Demo) – Vita makes good use of the header navigation. It’s a three-column fixed width theme with plenty of customization options.
3. Web 2.0 Blue – (Live Demo) – This is another simple and minimal theme. If you’re looking for something with no frills, this is the theme for you.

Top 3 New WordPress Plugins of the Week

1. Broken Links Remover checks your posts for broken links and removes them until you fix the link. Insanely useful and will keep your readers from clicking dead links and becoming aggravated.
2. Events Manager is a plugin to manage events such as music gigs, art expositions, or just job meetings. Events Manager inserts an Events page in the Manage menu of WordPress Administration, to let you insert, modify and delete events. You can describe events specifying their date and location, and also add a few notes.
3. Snazzy Archives takes your boring archives page and snazzes it up. No longer will your archive page just be hundreds of links. Snazzy Archives should be incorporated as a main feature of WordPress.

I’ve been slow on updating this week as I’ve been on vacation for quite a few days. I’ll be updating this week on how to keep a blog alive when you don’t have time to update.

Have a new theme, plugin, or blog you’re working on? Contact me to have it featured for free.