My Top 5 Writing Distractions (and how I avoid them)

I’m not the only easily-distracted writer, am I? It’s so easy to let distractions take away from my writing time, especially since I have not-ADHD-because-we-don’t-want-to-randomly-say-people-have-ADHD-when-they-don’t-but-focus-issues-for-sure.

But these writing distractions are avoidable (ish) … which is why I’m going to take this opportunity to share my top 5 writing distractions and say how I avoid them (ish).

Hopefully this will be a helpful (and fun!) post that will encourage you to minimize distractions and write that novel!

1: The Endless Void of YouTube

Lately, I’ve actually been too busy to watch YouTube (let alone write sometimes!), but that’s not usually an issue for me.

Because I’ll watch YouTube all the time.

It’s easy to do. You just have to catch up on your favorite YouTuber’s most recent movie review … and then you’re down the rabbit hole.

This can be an awful writing distraction for me since I usually watch more creative-ish things that do inspire me to write my own stories … but not in a healthy “stop watching YouTube videos to write” way but in a “creating twenty-five plot bunnies” way.

Good when I lack inspiration — but bad when I want to get something done.

The YouTube Fix

Other than installing blockers or unplugging the internet (the former of which I don’t want to do and the latter of which would defeat the purpose because a lot of my work is online), self-control is my main answer to this issue.

That’s hard to do, but I tell myself that I will watch a Youtube video (“a” meaning “one”) after I do something.

Taking breaks is healthy and productive, so this will be incentivise you and refresh your mind after a hard spell of work.

2: Just scrolling through social media.

I do this most with Facebook, but you all know what social platform it is that causes you to be badly distracted.

I don’t know what about Facebook calls to me. Probably because I hop on every so often to do something actually productive — then get sucked down the wormhole of seeing one more post.

I use Facebook for learning a lot, so it’s pretty easy to get distracted by that and tell myself it’s okay. But it’s not because it’s distracting.

I try to set myself up with set times to do stuff on Facebook for that reason, but oftentimes I find that I don’t need that time since I’m not much of a Facebooker (e.g. I don’t generally have more than a comment or two to respond to) — which leads to more scrolling.

The Social Media Fix

Again, installing site blockers or turning off the internet may work for some. I like to log out or uninstall apps for a certain amount of time if it’s really bothering me.

More than likely, though, simply jotting down whatever it is I want to do on social media and letting it sit until I’m not in the middle of something else is the best fix for me.

3: Wanting to be with my family.

Everyone goes, “Awww!”

But I’m not really that sweet. I don’t want to talk with my family or spend time with them or really even have them near me. I’m a grouchy teen, remember? Almost not a teen anymore, but you know.

No, I just want to “hang” with them. In that I want them to be available for me at any time as I ignore them and they ignore me.

Generally I used to do most of my work on the couch downstairs for this reason — I don’t like being alone and isolated up in my room, and I like having a place where I can sit quietly and observe everyone.

Problem is, this leads to a lot of distractions, from music and games and TV to people wanting me to do things to simply not being able to get in a zone because I’m watching people live their lives around me.

This is a more personal one, so it won’t apply to most people. But that’s my family situation.