There are plenty of distractions to deal with in our modern digital age—see if you can manage to get all the way through this article without turning your attention elsewhere at least once, for example. All that surrounding noise can make it difficult to stick to the task at hand, and actually get some solid work done.
I enjoy browsing social media and exploring the web as much as the next person, but I’ve also got plenty of writing to get through every day, and distractions can seriously slow me down. Studies have shown that we do much better when we focus on one task at a time, which for me is writing guides and articles.
While distraction-free devices such as the Freewrite Smart Typewriter have always appealed, I wanted to be more focused while using my MacBook Air. To that end, I’ve come up with a strategy for minimizing distractions as much as possible, and it’s something you might find helpful for your own work.
These steps apply specifically to macOS and Google Docs, which is what I use for most of my writing, but you can adapt them for Windows and other word processors too.
Turn off notifications
Focus modes are an easy way to manage notifications.
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Notifications is a good place to start—if your laptop is continually pinging and alerting you to other things, it’s hard to get anything done. On macOS, notification settings can be handled by clicking the Apple icon (top left), then System Settings > Notifications. Here you can set alerts on an app-by-app basis.
For me, the Focus entry in System Settings is even more useful. Here I’ve set up a dedicated Work focus mode that blocks all notifications from all apps, and leaves me in peace. To create your own mode, click Add Focus on the main list—you can either set them to run on a schedule, or enable them manually via Focus in the Control Center (click the toggle switches on the menu bar, top right, to access them).
For the best results, you need to silence your phone as well, which is likely to be interrupting you even more than your laptop. If you’re using an iPhone, you can sync Focus modes across both macOS and iOS, by enabling the Share across devices toggle switch on the main Focus options screen.
Tweak your writing software
Google Docs has a few tricks for distraction-free writing.
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Even without notifications enabled, it’s easy to catch sight of something else you could be doing on your laptop, rather than concentrating on a single task. Explore the various options available within your word processor of choice to make the interface as minimal as possible—which in my case involves tweaking the look of Google Docs.
To get the same effect on your own Google Docs documents, first head to the View menu and make sure the ruler, equation toolbar, and spelling and grammar suggestions are all hidden (for me, they just add to the on-screen clutter). Then, open the Format menu and choose Switch to pageless format to get one long, flowing page.
Next, select View and pick Full screen, and then maximize the browser window in macOS using the green button up in the top left corner. Hey presto—all you’ve got on screen now are your words, with nothing else to distract you. To bring back the Google Docs menus and toolbars, press Esc to exit maximized mode, move the cursor to the top of the screen and click the green button again.
Turn off the internet
Turn off wifi to reduce distractions further.
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For the most extreme version of a distraction-free writing device—heading back to the days of the typewriter—I block internet access on my laptop too (on macOS, you can just click the wifi symbol on the menu bar, top right, then toggle off Wi-Fi). Sure, it’s not the most comprehensive way of blocking the internet, but it works for me, and makes me think twice about going online (yes, Google Docs can work offline).
I find it makes me less likely to check the news, social media, or email when I should be writing. The obvious problem is that I can’t look up anything online either, so it’s a bit of a soft rule I have—I try to at least write certain chunks of articles while offline, then do all my online research at once, and without opening dozens of browser tabs.
You can tailor this to suit yourself, but I’ve found switching off the internet makes me more likely to rely on my own thoughts and word choices—without recourse to a dictionary or thesaurus. Sometimes it’s good to give your brain a bit of exercise, and get it to slow down and focus for a while.
