A writer’s day is filled with interruptions, and to be honest, most of them are welcome. I’m lured by social media and the pings that alert me to text messages from my squad (messages that always make me laugh). I daydream about what I’m going to do over the weekend. I suddenly realize I need to run to the post office or the grocery store. The interruptions can be constant and, let’s face it, way more alluring than the blank page that’s taunting me. (Excuse me while I check my email just one more time for that acceptance that is surely coming from The Paris Review today.)
When we’re interrupted, it’s not just the moment of the interruption that is at stake. Studies have shown that, after an interruption, it can take up to 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get our heads fully back into the game.1 Every time we stop writing to check email or social media, we lose not only the five minutes or so we spend browsing our Instagram feeds, but that additional 23:15 minutes. This is the time needed to remember where we were in our story, to pick up where we left off, to get our minds back to that magical place, and to be as deeply focused as we were before we took that break.
“I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground.” –Henry David Thoreau, Walden
I write mostly in the early mornings, before most people are awake. Me and Walter Mosley. I imagine Mr. Mosley a few hours south of me typing away while it’s still dark outside, just like me. It’s comforting. Writing so early in the morning helps. There are less distractions, but in the modern tech era, distractions are always at my fingertips. When it’s light out and weather permits, I take my laptop out onto the deck in my backyard, away from the intoxicating lure of furniture that needs dusting and dishes that need doing. For someone who loves to write, I am so often tempted by anything but. Because writing is hard.
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” –Ernest Hemingway
So my suggestion today is to not only give yourself the first and the best part of your day, before you get caught up in your daily life, but to rid yourself of distractions. Close yourself off from the rest of the world, just for an hour or two, and give yourself the undivided attention you deserve. I find my writing time is much more satisfying when I turn on the Do Not Disturb feature on my cell phone, give social media a break, and let messages pile up in my inbox for just a bit. I sometimes use a kitchen timer for this purpose–no break until that timer goes off. When I’m fully in it, that’s when the magic happens and the words begin to flow.