It’s hard to do concentrated, single-minded work while your computer, your phone, and your iPad are all bleeping at you. Offices need to be designed for quiet space, and that includes your home office.
If you work at home, set up a quiet chair somewhere in your house. It doesn’t have to be fancy. (Mine is at my kitchen table.) It just has to be away from the constant distraction of devices.
Set your phone on do not disturb or — better yet — leave it behind.
Have some other device that makes it easy to write without distraction. For me, that’s my iPad with WiFi turned off. For a friend, it’s his reMarkable Paper Pro.
Bring a paper notepad. You can use that for your work, of course, but there’s another reason to have one handy.
One problem with trying to do concentrated work is that all sorts of other things will pop up and vie for attention in your mind. If you find it hard to set them aside, write them down on the paper notepad. That pad can function like a pensieve and get the thought out of your head. (A white board can serve a similar purpose.)
Force yourself to spend some amount of time every day in your quiet chair. It will pay off.
