How to avoid it?

Fortunately, there is a way out of it, which anyone of you can use to avoid distraction, regardless of your situation.

Assign yourself a place of work

This is the must-take action for any freelance writer. It is not good to carry your laptop and sit anywhere in your home to work, well occasional working-in-kitchen will not hurt but do not make it a routine. I know it sounds against the spirit of freelance writing—you can work from anywhere and anytime—but this is worth a deviation. Find a lonely corner in your house and turn it into a workplace.

Fix your work hours

I may sound like talking against the freedom of freelance writing, but my intention is not to drag you back into the 9-5 job that you left in the past, it is only to help you produce more. And as it is you can anytime pull the string and call it off.

Work, no matter what

Once you fix your work hour, you should stick to it, no matter what. Well, you can deviate from “no matter what” principle without any guilt feeling when you know you need to. Occasion deviation never hurts, at least not in our profession.

Talk to your family

At times, getting things write just need a word from us. Talk to your family and tell them that you are working around here, so not to create distraction. Well this might not work with a disgruntled spouse, but in most of the cases, this will be enough. Believe it or not, they understand the value of the work you are doing.

As you can see, fighting off distraction does not take so much of muscle power as much it takes discipline and tactics. What are your tactics to fight this monster off? Use the comment box and tell me your strategies.

This brief post will help you secure your Gmail account from the burglars who are out there to steal your mail IDs and other information. Securing Gmail is an easy task. Just follow the things written below and your Gmail will become secure.

Forcing Gmail to use https connection

The very first thing you need to do is to force Gmail to open a secure channel for all your online communication by using https instead of http. Using https is free. To use it, all you need to do is make a slight change in the settings. Follow the following steps

1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account as you regularly do.
2. Step 2: Click on the “settings” that appears at the top of the page.
3. Step 3: Make sure you are on the General Tab under settings.
4. Step 4: On fifth position from top, you will find “Browser connection”.
5. Step 5: Check the Radio button beside “Always use https”.
6. Step 6: Click save changes at the bottom of the page.
7. Step 7: Restart your Gmail. Now you will notice that your Gmail has https prefix in place of http.

Sign out all other sessions

How many times did it happen to you that you logged in our office or home PC and forgot to log out when leaving office or home? And how many times we asked our family or colleague to log you from your Gmail? And do you remember where all you logged in: Cell phones, cybercafé, friends’ PC, your bosses’ laptop?

There is no need to panic. There is a way in Gmail to log you out from all the devices you logged in at other places. Follow the following steps and you can easily do that.

1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the page.
3. Step 3: Find “Last account activity: X minutes ago on this computer.  Details” written at the bottom. You may or may not find “This account is open in 1 other location at this IP (122.162.225.247)”this written before the “last login” text.
4. Step 4: Click the “Details” link.
5. Step 5: A window will pop up.
6. Step 6: Go to the window and click “Sign out all other sessions” button.

That’s it. You are done. Your Gmail is secure now.

When I say, a dependable computer, I mean a computer that functions properly without freezing for hours. If your computer or laptop – I am not in favor of using laptop as a primary device, but you can use it as secondary device for the time when you are out – works fine with your word processing program or office suite, internet browsers, chat clients, and FTP client then you can stick with it.

2^nd Commandment: Thou Shalt Get a Mechanical Keyboard

You should have a good keyboard that allows swift typing. If you are using a keyboard that has membrane-based keys then I will suggest buying a spring-based (mechanical) keyboard like TVS Gold, next time when you are out shopping for a keyboard.

A keyboard with spring-based (mechanical) keys not only sounds sweet but it lasts for long. I am using mine for more than 3 years and it is still as swift and soft as any new keyboard could be. I use TVS Gold. No membrane keyboard will last even half as long, no matter how expensive it is. Go for the sweet metallic, typewriter-like sound of a mechanical keyboard. Mechanical keyboards are expensive but it is worth the investment. Do not worry much about price when buying a keyboard. After all, this is the device that will earn you your living.

3^rd Commandment: Thou Shalt Ask For Work

Do not assume that the client has just so much work to give you. He may be employing other freelancers to do his work. Why don’t you show him, how eager you are to take more responsibility? Also convey that you have sufficient time to do justice with the new work.

Have you contacted your ex-clients lately? If you have not done so, do it now! Drop a mail and ask if there is anything you can help him with, and also emphasize how satisfied or delighted he was while working with you in the past.

4^th Commandment: Thou Shalt Follow the Laggards

In freelance writing career, each one of us ends up working with a client or two, who delays the payments as much as he could. Do not forget to follow them up, and make a polite request to pay your dues every time you communicate.

5^th Commandment: Thou Shalt Communicate Well

Do you talk to your client regularly? If not, why? And also do not restrict yourself to using only IMs (instant messaging). Call him, mail him and if he is in the neighborhood, drop in.

6^th Commandment: Thou shalt set Your Income Goal

You should have a clear income goal in mind, which should be revised every month or every quarter. Set your income target and go for it. Do not forget to be realistic in setting income goal for the month or for the quarter!

7^th Commandment: Thou Shalt constantly be on the Lookout

Do not rest on your laurels, and do not count only on what you have. Keep on chasing new work. Who knows when one or more of the existing clients abruptly decided to stop taking your services! And who knows the new client you will get is better paying than the one you have now! Keep looking.

Solitary reaper

The journey of a writer is solitary one. Your decision to start writing has put you on the path where you will not get any company. All you will get is this: your characters to converse with; your ideas to talk to; your plot to develop; your message to convey; your words to play with.

Switch off your cell phone, disconnect your landline phones, grab a cup of steaming tea, close the door, Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, and venture out.

When to write

If you feel in the zone at 2 AM in the morning, start writing then only; if the morning breeze stimulates your creative senses then push the newspaper reading for the day and start writing from 5 AM in the morning. The idea is to fix the time that suits your lifestyle as unlike 9-5 office job, there is no one fix time for writing.

Writing schedule

Writing requires dedication. You need to be disciplined to become successful as a writer. Start the journey with making a writing schedule. Fix a time and stick to it. I will suggest you to write daily, but if your work schedule does not give you enough free time to write daily then write at least thrice a week. This regularity will seed writing habit in you. If you are just starting out, you can even start with writing on weekends, and then increase the frequency when the rhythm sets in.

Clean up

Remove all the unnecessary things from your writing desk. The more things you will have, the more scattered your attention will be. Keep only those things (Pen, paper, reference books, laptop, desktop, etc.) that you need while writing.

Set a Goal

How much you want to accomplish in the coming week? Start with setting a weekly goal. Divide the weekly goal into smaller daily goals, if you have planned to write daily. Always stick to the goal, come may what! How much are you planning to write today: 1 page, 500 words, 1000 words or 2 pages?

Freshen up

Before you begin writing, you can listen to the music you like; watch 10-20 minutes of your favorite television show; take a 10-minute shower, go for a walk; play with your dog; read a book; sit alone and feel the wind; or do a light exercise. The idea is to remove the unnecessary baggage from your mind and freshen up before you begin writing. This way you will be more productive. You cannot write well, if you are not feeling fresh.

A Netbook is basically a smaller laptop, outfitted with less hard drive, processor power, RAM, and a smaller screen, just to outfit you with the basics necessary to use the internet.  As that’s essentially all a Netbook is for, but they are remarkably useful in that sense and purpose.  You don’t really need a load of extra features for your computer if all you’re going to do is use the internet, otherwise you’re paying too much for extras you don’t need that are only designed to jack up the price.

The other great thing about some Netbooks is that many of them have built in internet connections, meaning they go through a wireless network, like a cell phone on the 3G network, so that you can connect from anywhere.  Given a Netbook’s fantastically long battery life, you’ve got a machine that can connect from anywhere for long periods of time, making them extremely versatile and useful for conducting basic business on the go.

But then there’s the major problem with a Netbook.  They’re really only useful for conducting basic computer tasks, like your internet needs.  Anything to do with multimedia, games, or business that requires the use of different applications such as Microsoft Office Works becomes really difficult when applied to a Netbook.  The smaller screen makes using anything like Word a huge pain, as you’ll need to scroll around your typing a ridiculous amount.  And the smaller processor and storage space just doesn’t allow for running any program that requires a lot of real time memory.

So I would say Netbooks are all well and good for accessing the internet, but not really anything else.  Which is exactly what you should think about before purchasing one.  Sure a Netbook will end up being half the price of a much better full size laptop, but with that price difference drops off more than half the tasks that the laptop would be able to excel at, that you’ll find your Netbook can’t handle.

Well I should say, at least they appear to be ridiculously good.  In actuality Acer is not a very favorable brand, and is not something you should necessarily count on, for a few key reasons.

Number one being that Acer computers have a habit of breaking down quickly.  While it’s been a household brand for computer equipment since 1976, Acer just hasn’t aged well within the computer industry.  And anybody who’s owned an Acer laptop recently can attest to the fact that you’ll find disappointing performance from the unit’s processor, and a tendency to break down easily.

Not to mention the fact that Acer have had two recent recalls over faulty technology in both their laptop and desktop PC’s.  About a year ago Acer had to recall laptops because of an issue with their batteries that caused the unit’s to overheat and start fires.  And now only a few months ago, Acer issued another recall on their Acer Predator desktop PC’s, for basically the same hardware malfunction, in which the unit’s overheated causing the inner components to melt and practically start on fire.

Meaning in my humble opinion, Acer PCs just cannot compete in today’s market, and the company has to do some serious reworking in their hardware before they can release anything reliable and worthy of your hard earned dollars.