Finding Focus

I wake up, feed Roxie, grab a mug and fill it with coffee. The television turns on to CNN American Morning and the iPad opens to flip between Twitter, my inbox and Zite to see what is going on in the world.

Dylan leaves for school and the television flips over to The Today Show. Emily and I chat, cuddle and watch until she leaves for school as well.

That is when the battle for my focus begins.

The Internet is beautiful and crazy place filled with an endless stream of content that we can consume.

We've all had those days where we get sucked into the click, click, boom mentality and suddenly an hour (or more) has gone by and what do we have to show for it but an empty feeling of waste.

These past couple of days have felt like that. It is a rut and one I'll break out of, but I also needed to clear my head and put this out there because as I talked to some people about it, I realized more people go through this then will ever admit it.

How do I usually break out of it?

My go to method when I must get something done (especially writing) is to fire up a program called Freedom that my buddy Julien Smith suggested that blocks all Internet traffic for a set amount of time that you decide and can't change. I'll set it for 60 minutes, fire up some music and get to work.

I've also noticed that I'm much more productive when I'm on my laptop and in a different setting then the desk in my office. Not sure why this is, but it helps. With the nice weather I can work in pretty much any room or location and it helps find my focus.

If you start to lose your focus, get up and find it. Sitting and clicking will never bring it back for you.