Squirrel!

With my new position, I'm in front of people all day long.

I'm not sure if you have any idea how exhausting it can be to have to be "on" all the time. Before, I could just plug in my earphones if I was feeling unsociable or needed to concentrate. Since most of the others around me were doing the same, it was pretty easy to get my job done plus spend (quite) a bit of time letting my current work in progress simmer in my mind.

Now, I'm the source of information and entertainment for a group of people who rely on me to set them up for success at their new job. Yikes.

Needless to say, although I work the same hours and same amount of days each week as I did before this position, I don't feel like I have quite as much time to think about writing.

When I get home, I may not be physically tired, but my mind certainly is. And as a result, I can't seem to concentrate on any one thing for more than 15 or 20 minutes. I'll be happily doing something, and SQUIRREL! something else distracts me.

Facebook is a HUGE culprit of this.

I am right now, as I type this, on RD chat getting some actual writing done for the first time since August 2010. I've been on for about two and a half hours and while I have no numbers to brag about, I'm really pleased with what I'm putting out.

As a personal challenge to myself, I've logged out of Facebook. It's actually both harder and easier than I thought it would be. Easier in the sense that I'm not sitting here distracted by all my friend's updates. Harder in the fact that it's absolutely a habit to check it every fifteen minutes or so, just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

So far, though, it's working on keeping me on track. This will now be part of my writing routine.

Now, if only I could keep the cats from going crazy when I'm trying to concentrate...