Usually, I’m very disciplined about writing. After walking my dog in the morning, I’m at my desk at 9 a.m. I turn the sound off so I’m not distracted by the whirr of arriving tweets, or the siren song of e-mail in my in-box. I don’t even listen to music so I can concentrate.

So what the heck happened to me a couple of weeks ago? I hit a spell where I just could not focus. I was distracted by e-mail and spent too much time reading blogs and following alluring URLs posted on Twitter. True, it was high season for vacations and I had a hard time reaching people I had to interview. But really; I had to do the equivalent of grabbing myself by the scruff of the neck to get my own attention.

If you get caught by the same lack of focus, here are some ideas to help:

1. Write out a list of everything you must accomplish. Rewrite it each night to be ready for the next day.
2. Don’t even open Twitter until you’ve crossed something off your “to do” list.
3. Turn off the sound so you don’t hear incoming messages.
4. If you leave your mail program open, block the view of your in-box so you can’t see incoming messages either.
5. Only allow yourself certain times to check e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. and STICK TO THEM.
6. Get a timer and be disciplined about how much time you spend checking all those online funhouses.
7. In extreme cases, take your laptop somewhere where you don’t have access to the Internet.
8. Give yourself a reward for the tiniest of achievements, such as staying focused for a set amount of time, and for bigger successes like finishing an article or submitting a project.
9. Know that this, too, shall pass.

Having just completed two last-minute projects (quick turnaround of about a day from interview to finished article, something I like to call “pulling a rabbit out of a hat”), I think I’m recovered. At least for now. But if you noticed that I haven’t said much on Twitter lately, this is part of the reason why.

Oh, and I should add, we need to cut ourselves some slack. As long as you are meeting your commitments, it’s OK to work at a slower pace once in a while!

In his recent Alertbox newsletter discussing how non-profit web sites can attract new donors (you’d think it would go without saying, but obviously not: it’s be clear about what you are trying to achieve, and tell potential donors how you are going to spend the money), Jakob Nielsen comments:

“For encouraging customer (or donor) loyalty, e-mail newsletters remain the Internet tool of choice.”

The link from this comment takes you to Nielsen’s June 12, 2006 Alertbox, “Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion.” Lots of good advice, and this statement:

“Our main conclusion remains the same: Email newsletters are the best way to maintain customer relationships on the Internet.”

I share Nielsen’s love for newsletters. The best ones are warm and familiar. They contain interesting and/or useful information. They arrive often enough to build a relationship, but not so frequently that the reader starts to get annoyed. (What? Another one already? I haven’t had time to read the last one!) They keep in mind that the reader wants to know “what’s in it for me?” and go easy on the sales pitch.

Nielsen notes that readers have different expectations of newsletters compared to web sites. Newsletters create a highly emotional reaction, a bond between the reader and the company. Web sites are all about usability.

“Even a website that you visit daily will feel like a tool where you simply want to get in and get out. The negative aspect is that usability problems have a much stronger impact on the customer relationship.”

Nielsen has lots of advice about writing and designing for scanners, crafting subject lines, opening lines and headings, and making it easy for readers to get on and off subscription lists. Find much of it in the free summary and even more in his full Email Newsletter Usability Report ($398).

You knew it, and usability expert Jakob Nielsen confirms it: we’re drowning in irrelevant information, squandering an hour or more each day simply dealing with email and other distractions. So if you haven’t picked a new year’s resolution yet, here’s one:

Set priorities and allocate most of your time to tasks that are crucial to meeting your goals. (Surprise! Updating your Facebook profile probably isn’t one of them.)

Nielsen’s tips include ignoring email, except for a small amount of time each day — say, once per hour — that you specifically set aside for this activity:

“The majority of the workday should be allocated to big blocks of uninterrupted time where any outside influence is banned and you focus on your own priority tasks, one at a time…People who have the discipline to work this way accomplish immensely more than interrupt-driven slaves of real-time updates.”

Some of you will know by how promptly I usually reply to email that, ahem, this is an instance of “do as Nielsen says, not as I do.” However, when I’m working to a deadline, I’m all about uninterrupted focus.

To subscribe to Nielsen’s Alertbox, send a blank email to join-alertbox@laser.sparklist.com.

A smart reminder from Jakob Nielsen in his most recent Alertbox:

“…the best way to boost your productivity is to switch off IM, Twitter and the like and refrain from checking your email more than once per hour. Even the shortest interruption costs you several minutes of productivity as you switch your brain back into gear for your main task, particularly if you have a knowledge-intensive job.”

(Of course, I share that as a good idea, knowing full well that I’ll continue to keep my e-mail program open and check it more often. I do, however, keep the sound off.)

Nielsen’s 10 steps for cleaning up what he calls “information pollution” include writing informative subject lines and avoiding “reply to all.” He reminds us that “Better prioritization, fewer interruptions and concentrated information that’s easy to find and manage helps people become more productive and stop wasting their colleagues’ time.”

I also encourage people to update the subject line when you have a long string of e-mails that go back and forth, morphing into a discussion about something completely different from the original note. And please, when those back-and-forths start growing in length, cut off some of the unnecessary earlier comments, keeping only the most recent ones needed to make sense of your reply. A telephone call might also save time!

Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in emails? My friend, podcaster and fellow writer Donna Papacosta has great tips for dealing with the growing volume of mail in “Taming the email beast.” My favourite: Use the telephone. Not only can it save multiple emails back and forth, but it also gives you a chance to make a more human connection. I also agree with turning off notification, which I do. However, I confess to a bad email habit: I leave my email program open so I can see (although not hear) when mail comes in. The discipline part comes in not opening and responding to the mail right away; sometimes I can, and sometimes I can’t.

I was reminded how much time email can waste take up earlier this week, when I took my laptop on the road. Son #2 had a lactose tolerance test at a hospital half an hour from home and we had to be there at 8 a.m. The test itself is pretty non-invasive, compared to most of the tests related to Crohn’s disease. However, it involved hanging around for three hours while the nurse took intermittent breath samples to see if his body can digest a type of natural sugar found in dairy products. So while he was in the room with a surprising number of other people being tested, I hung out in the hallway working.

It was an interesting experiment that pointed out to me how much time can be consumed in my usual morning check for mail, answering mail and cleaning out the in-box. It’s even more time if I start checking other blogs and posting to my own! There was no wi-fi available so instead of going online, I got right to work turning five pages of interview notes into a 400-word article for a client. Since I had two other similar notes-to-articles jobs that I like to think of as “spinning straw into gold,” it was a good way to get one into a state that was pretty close to complete. (I’ve since submitted it and was pleased to hear “It’s exactly what I was hoping for.”)

Of course, it’s always easier to stay disciplined with a looming deadline!

One of the best reminders I’ve seen lately related to keeping e-mails brief and to the point comes from Matthew Stibbe’s “Ten laws for better email”:

“Imagine your email was a telegram and that you were paying by the word.”

Those who spend large amounts of time online will totally understand when T.J. Larkin, in his weekly Larkin Pages research summary (sign up), says that we’re the ones responsible for half of our own interruptions. Think of all those blogs you follow, keeping up your own blog, checking email, visiting social networks, checking out what’s new, Twitter etc.; some days it’s a wonder we get much done at all!

In Dr. Larkin’s Page #78 mailing, Multitasking Lowers Performance, he says we can reduce interruptions by a whopping 92% if, during certain times of the day, we stop interrupting ourselves:

• by not checking emails, standing up and moving around or beginning a casual conversation (49%)
• by asking others not to interrupt us (21%)
• by not responding to new emails (13%)
• by not answering the telephone (9%)

I dunno; sounds like quite a bit of discipline is required! Now excuse me while I go check my email.