Distractions and spring and....where is my brain?

For years, I took myself off to a hotel for a long weekend once or twice when each deadline loomed.  It helped, certainly, to be away from the distraction of three kids and a husband wanting attention, laundry and meals.  Meals?  Seriously?  In the midst of my deadline stress, someone wanted to be fed?

Now the kids are on their own--out of college and married. They are all really busy and I miss them like crazy.  I want them all back, lounging in my office and chatting about their days at school, or begging to go to town for lunch, or a matinee.  Even more, I long for the days when they were still playing on the floor and wearing their little footie pajamas.  Where did those years go?

The sudden quiet in our house was quite an adjustment.  It  also provided a lesson.  It wasn't really the demands of family that interfered with progress on that last hundred pages of every deadline.  It was me.

Even now, alone in the house while my husband is at work, I can lose an hour when I wander deep into an Internet search for some detail, or I suddenly remember that some closet is in desperate need of cleaning (the level of need in direct correlation to how troublesome the current scene is.) 

Or....I look out of my office window at the rolling countryside and want to grab my camera and enjoy the beauty of the season--whatever it is.

Distractions? Whether they’re inside or outside, the dogs  want to be wherever they are not.  Here is Sage, doing his best to look sad and needy while I try to type.

And then there are the barn cats march up to the house and wind their way through the hostas beyond my office windows,  then line up to stare up at me, reminding me that the time of day doesn't matter--it's always time for more food. Come on, they purr seductively, come on down to the barn. And if I succumb, then I've gotten too close and the horses beckon.  On a  beautiful day, what better choice could there be than to savor it while taking a little ride down the road? 

Lovely distractions, all.   And social media?  Don't get me started!  When I started writing, none of it existed, and now that aspect of the writing business has taken on a life of its own.  As soon as I figure out one thing, two more innovative prospects show up on the horizon--more to absorb and learn, and then to maintain.  Thanks to this wonderful sweet romance group and its social media savvy members, I've come to learn and enjoy Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. It can be exciting and overwhelming to learn, and it can vacuum up every spare minute and then some.  Fortunately, I discovered Mac Freedom a few years back, which shuts off access to the Internet for however many hours I need.  Six to eight hours a day is just about right.  :)

So when I look back, I realize that my family really wasn't the distraction that slowed my progress on page counts....it has always been me,  falling for all of those aspects of life that clamor for attention. 

So how about you?  How do you focus and get everything done?!