I have been having a tough time finishing /starting one specific task, to come up with new content for our website. A lot of other different things keep coming at my way, and this specific task for writing has been postponed many times over.
I recalled some tricks published in Brian Tracy's book, "Eat that Frog!", and decided to focus on the most important task (or eat the ugliest frog at hand). I sat down in front of my comp, and realize that my desktop is a mess: chat client, email notifier, and assorted other links, short-cuts, and program launcher leaving a permanent mark on my desktop.
Realizing that all of this will effectively kill my productivity, and make completing my task so much harder, an idea came to me. Why don't I just use a Linux LiveCD, such that I can have a clean slate, and minimal distraction? I grabbed the LiveCD that i have on hand (ubuntu 6.0.6), and restartd my machine. After a couple of minutes, I am up and running.
I must say, the effect was much more profound than I expected. I used the built in firefox browsers to access my gmail account, and also to begin research on the topic at hand. One blissful hour later, an overall outline has been created for the new web page. From the default file viewer, to the integrated OpenOffice 2.0. The LiveCD worked very well, and fast beyond any expectations that I have. Although, I still need to figure out how to change my display to support dual screens in Ubuntu.
I think I will do this trick for an hour each day.
