Conquering Interruptions

Talk about stress and the frustration that a writer goes through when they are unable to write or when an interruption takes place. When your focus is broken, it becomes difficult to regain your thought process. Those who aren’t writers may not entirely grasp the degree of anxiety and stress that comes along with not being able to get your thoughts written or develop your complete thought process while in the moment.

When we miss that “tug” or “dose of inspiration” it’s painful mentally because you beat yourself up. You try to figure out what you are wanting to write, thinking about, or what you were doing at the moment an idea came to mind. Even then, it’s like trying to reinvent the wheel all over again.

Whether you’re a freelance writer, a blogger, an author, an instructor/teacher of some sort or even just writing journal entries, here are a few ideas that help me when circumstances that may arise hinder me from being great (haha!). Face it, there are those time where we are unable to escape to silence or remove ourselves from the bustling noises of life living around us. Hopefully this could help a little:

• Jot down a few quick notes – this helps so that you can easily come back and pick up where you left off, This way your train of thought isn’t ultimately lost

• Record a memo in your phone – for example, you may be inspired while cooking a meal. Record your thoughts via voice memo instead of fumbling around with pen and paper.

• Use the Notepad in your phone – as I am right now at 2:49am while the kids are sleeping. It comes in so handy! I then “share” my note via email, copy into a word document and can edit from there

• Write when the kids are sleep! – this was one of my struggles. Yes, we’re exhausted too but 20 minutes of not being on IG and FB or scrolling through my watch list on Netflix makes the difference in writing. Twenty minutes may be nothing to some, but to me it could mean a half of a chapter the way my thoughts and ideas come rolling in some days!

• Be an early riser – Lord knows I’m not an early bird and never have been and don’t. pretend to be. But I’m working on it! This is my prayer as I’m striving to be a Proverbs 31 woman. (Proverbs 31:15). God’s working on me. Rising early can change the course of your entire day. These are the peaceful moments before your family wakes that you can lay out whatever is on your heart… in peace… So this is more of a ‘do as I say, not as I do moment’ (keep me in prayer, ha!)

• Silence your phone – #teamIPhone has an emergency  feature that will ring through or text through your silenced phone if it is truly an emergency. There is also a setting that allows specific contacts to automatically get through.