My New Workspace
I have a new desktop on my computer. The Wolvog set it up for me, giving it an enticing beach background so I’ll want to show up for work each day. He placed two layers of passwords on the desktop, so it’s a pain in the ass to get in or out of it. Which is why I now tend to stay put once I go to work.
Up until this week, I worked from this desktop. I can swipe right and get to the document I’m working on, or swipe left and get to my email, and it makes me feel like I’m on top of everything. Actually, that should be past tense. I thought I was on top of everything until I realized that the only thing I was on top of was my email inbox.
I commented on this at the end of a long day where I had written very few pages but had kept my inbox at zero because… well… email is usually pretty easy and writing is hard. But don’t worry; I didn’t just waste my time with email. I can access music or movies through this desktop, so I listened or watched for a few minutes as a reward. (For accomplishing nothing?) I can get to every social media account from this desktop, so I checked in with Twitter and Facebook several times. My feed reader is on this desktop, so I read all of your blogs.
The Wolvog suggested that I set up a distraction-free workspace. A space with Internet access in case I need to look up a fact but is never logged into email. A space with just the documents I need for the project I’m working on, and no other documents to peruse to waste time. A space with nothing but my work.
It’s like being told that I need to eat oatbran for every meal.
But he set it up and made it look pretty and imported all the documents I need and none of the bookmarks I want.
As much as I don’t exactly enjoy hanging out in that space, it really has changed my work habits. I now check my email in the morning and then “leave for work,” commuting over to the other desktop. I set my phone across the room so I can’t easily check into email without leaving the workspace. And, as I said, he has made it a pain in the ass to exit or enter so I tend to stay put. Every hour or so, I quickly check email from my phone and only log out of my desktop to answer one if it’s time sensitive. Other than that, when I’m at work, I am really, truly at work.
I have no willpower. I admit that I have no willpower when it comes to email, blogs, and finding 80s commercials on YouTube. But I have a new workspace, so it’s all going to be just fine.
8 comments
With the invention of smart phones and tablets, we have all become sort of Deficient in rating focused on only one thing. It’s like all the stuff of the Internet is bright and shiny and we are all helpless to its powers. I’m working on this myself. I love that Wolvog took charge and got you all set up…he’s a smarty!!
That sounds awesome. I have no willpower either. I flit between things and have lost all my ability to focus long term. When I started using a hand me down computer, it was making facebook alerts pop up on the screen but I eventually figured out how to turn that off. Ugh.
I’m laughing along at this because I can so relate. Writing is hard. Maybe not blogging so much for me because that is fun, but the paid work writing.. that’s hard. I need a set up like yours. I have no willpower when it comes to FB or other blogs.
I need this too. I’ve actually been working from real actual notebooks so I don’t get distracted and click onto the web mindlessly. I don’t trust myself using a computer unless it has NO internet access. (How awful is that?) I don’t think it’s a willpower thing at all, at least not for me, because I know I have plenty of willpower. Maybe it’s just fear.
Anyway, I love that you are working around things… And that the Wolvog was the one to set it up for you. Think he’d come do that for me?
That sounds like a great workspace, although all need and no want…I am super distractible so I feel like this is a wonderful idea. Go, Wolvog!
I’ve been doing that a lot these past two weeks as I have a deadline. I set up my laptop and second monitor in the guest bedroom where the internet is spotty at best. I think it helped!
I also have no willpower, which is why I’m reading this instead of working. Email is less of a distraction, even though I have it open all the time here. But reading blogs and clicking through to articles on Fb or researching travel websites are terrible distractions for me.
I have a writing app that is distraction free, as long as I stay in it. But it requires willpower to open it in the first place, so that’s a problem!
I have your habits but only one desktop, which is probably why I write only a fractional amount of what you write.
Please share with my any good 80s commercial you find.