Drowning in email? Try Inbox Zero to learn sane tips for dealing with high-volume email. And don’t miss the free Inbox Zero video. »
Register for free on 43 Folders to comment on articles, post to our forum, customize your visits, and much more. Current users can login now.
The "unplug your router" advice...Hack your way out of writer's block By: Merlin Mann (82 replies) November 18, 2004 - 4:36am |
|
| EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |
Popular |
|
Inbox ZeroThe original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation. Get Started with ‘GTD’David Allen’s popular productivity book and the system on which it’s based help turn ‘stuff’ into actions that support valuable outcomes. |
43 Folders is powered by Drupal, which rules. Our site was designed by a bearded fella from Wire and Twine and has been lovingly skinned for Drupal by the code ninjas at RoopleTheme. Ben Durbin is the sine qua non and our personal consigliere. 43f’s web hosting is sponsored by A2.
43 Folders® is a registered trademark of Merlin Mann. All posts and comments © their original owners. Everything else (including the design) is © Merlin Mann, 2004-2008. Merlin’s posts can be reused or republished solely in accordance with the BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License. Please don’t be a douche with my stuff. Here’s our Legal and Ground Rules. 43 Folders loves you. Namasté.
The "unplug your router" advice...
The “unplug your router” advice is good. I’ve had a lot of success with a more extreme version of that that I picked up from slashdot.
Get a used sack-of-crap laptop and a light-weight linux distro. You can find really old celeron laptops for well under CDN$300 in my city. Put nothing on this laptop but a good text editor, or a nice and simple word pro like Ted or AbiWord. You do NOTHING on this laptop but write. (or programme, or whatever it is you do. Probably doesn’t work for graphic design …) Its like that old tip about doing nothing in bedroom but sleep and make love; when you sit down at that laptop, you know you mean business. That change of machine and/or venue can be enough to jolt you out of stuckness.
You can also do this with a live linux distro. When I had a g3, and no laptop, I found a workable equivalient in designating my terminal window for work only.