Creating a Low Distraction Environment for Writing

We live in a world of increasing distraction, one in which even the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) pulls at us to check our phones or tablets – or even watches – to see if our latest upload is accumulating likes or engagement, or if someone has responded to our contentious comment on that political or scientific post. Everything seems to be a battle nowadays, doesn’t it? Whether with other people or just with yourself, the world promises potentially endless struggle. But only if you allow it.

A few years ago, I stopped getting into arguments with people on Twitter (now X) because it was literally keeping me awake at night, with people from other time zones (usually American) arguing with me. I would put my phone on airplane mode, and then, because the argument was going round in my head, I’d take it off airplane mode and go back into the app or react to the notifications. In my mind, I enjoy a good debate, but that’s fine when you’re playing it all out in your own head. In truth, I’m terrible with conflict of any kind, and I always end up in a state of anxiety – I feel nauseous, physically tense, sometimes bordering on full-blown panic. I’ve suffered for 30 years with panic attacks, so I know the warning signs.

Someone I worked for many years ago told me that if you can, reasonably, remove from your life a source of stress or anxiety, you should always do so. It’s the ‘reasonably’ part that gets me, though, as I’ve found myself in the past (and, admittedly, in the present) isolating myself from people and situations that cause anxiety. I spent years distancing myself from friends because their social get-togethers made me nauseous, and that was long before I even got there!

Nowadays, my social life is relatively quiet, but I’m 49 this year, so I’m sure that’s not too unusual. Unfortunately, my overactive (hyperactive?) mind keeps pulling me in different directions and I find it hard to complete a lot of tasks. I’ve taken to using To-Do lists (Microsoft has a To-Do app that I’ve started using) but I often forget to put things on it when they come to me, or my tasks are scattered across pieces of paper or emails to myself (from one account to another), and so there’s always a nagging voice in my head suggesting I’ve missed something. In other words, I’m constantly on edge.

I find it very difficult to relax, and of course, to write, you need to relax. You need to be ‘in the zone’, visiting your literary world, the universe you’ve created, without being weighed down by cares and considerations that keep you anchored to the real world. It really is about escaping psychologically into another place.

So, I put my phone on airplane mode (do you worry there’ll be an emergency and someone will need you?), silent and face down. Or, even better, I do all this and put it in another room. I used to burn incense, especially when I got my Barad-Dur backflow burner, but then I read about it being carcinogenic and so I stopped. Oh, did I tell you I’m a hypochondriac with Death Anxiety? I bet you can feel the stress coming through these words! (By the way, this aspect of my psyche was the influence for Samuel Vawter in Pawns of The Prophet)

Pawns of The Prophet (Kiranis 2)

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I used to listen to heavy metal music while I was writing, and friends and family wondered how I could get anything done. It’s strange – I could listen to entire albums without even noticing the time go by, and I’m talking about Slayer, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Annihilator…the list goes on. Sometimes, a particular song in which the vocals were dominant or a particular line had always been interesting or exciting to me would break through the background noise and I’d lose my writing flow; but most of the time, heavy metal was the white noise for epic battle scenes and general action. It would even inspire a character’s angry introspection or arguments with another.

Music has long been my greatest source of immediate inspiration, as opposed to other books and movies or TV shows that find their way into the back of my mind and start feeding my need to write. Soundtracks have also long been my writing companions – from Braveheart to Star Wars or Star Trek movies; Batman to The Lord of The Rings – and nowadays I go to them before heavy metal. I find I need their more immediate relationship to what I’m writing than the music of my youth, and the opening track from Braveheart has been a sort of ‘trigger’ for me since the 90s, as if by playing it I’m instructing my brain that it’s time to write. It’s like flicking a switch – I take a deep breath at my monitor and rest my hands on the keyboard. And we’re on.

Within the past few months, due to the stresses of work (two jobs) and other obligations, writing has been incredibly difficult for me. But I found that if I put my noise-cancelling earphones in and then put my hood up, my distraction seriously diminishes, as if I’m physically insulated from the world outside. I must admit that I struggle against the urge to look around and make sure (when there’s someone else in the house) that nobody is sneaking up on me (!) but overall it’s made my writing time more immersive. Monty (my dog) doesn’t like it, though – he sits to one side, looking up and trying to get my attention.

So, if you’re serious about creating a low distraction environment for writing, maybe some of this will help. Maybe it will resonate for some of you, maybe not. Maybe I’m just weird! For the younger writers out there, I would advise putting your phone in another room, for a start, and silence it before you do – no sound, no buzzing, nothing. The temptation to check it is a killer, and we really have become slaves to these devices. Also, snooze any notifications on your laptop or PC.

On another (but related) note, I’ve been looking into ADHD symptoms recently, as they appear to align not only with how I experience the world around me today, but also how I’ve experienced it throughout my life. I know some will say that self-diagnosis is no diagnosis, and generally I would agree, but my entire childhood and all the mistakes over the past few decades that I constantly berate myself for appear to be validated through this lens. I intend to pursue diagnosis, if for no other reason than to be at peace with who I am, rather than bemoan my ‘difference’ from others that I’ve seen as almost debilitating throughout my life. It’s something I’d like to face head on.

Perhaps putting my hood up to disconnect from the world is not the victory I deem it to be. And yet, it keeps me writing.

Secrets of The Universe (Kiranis 3)

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