The iPad as a Writer Tool. Focused Writing

The first software that I remember that I use in my Mac to focus myself as a writer was Pages. I got Pages because it has a button you can hit that makes it look full screen, and remove any other distraction from the screen. I use that feature so much, and I really enjoy it. Later I discover that Scrivener, also has that feature, and have try to use it too.
The problem is not the existence of that, is that I know that under the black screen there is all this little things that I can tweak, so I get distracted and instead of write, I play.
Comes the iPad, and the first application I put to accomplish this was Pages. Even that the pages version of the iPad doesn’t have as many things as the full desktop version does, it has enough to keep me distracted and unfocused.
I said before, that I discover text files by mistake, and the Resistance (capital R as defined by Steven Pressfield) try to convince me that you could not work well on text formats, because you could not do many things and have many option to make things look good. After I pass the initial effect of the Resistance, and continue typing, and type even more, I have come to enjoy not only the writing in the iPad but the writing in text files for later editing.
Removing all the distractions from the environment, read, all the things that can make me waste time, instead of use that time to write, had been incredible,
I use my iPad for focused writing, if I need to, I can always go back to the MacBook and edit, change fonts, colors, bold and underline the text, and waste an incredible amount of time, but all that happen after the text is done, all that waste of time, is done after the original creation is finish, after I had done the first part of my delivery.
I began writing in the iPad because the possibilities of unconscious surfing, and wasting time got immediately reduced with it, if I quit this app to go to the web, there are enough things to give me the clue that I am going to stop writing, as I said before all those same clues in the MacBook are more unconscious or as a friend of mine said, my brain had them block so took me longer to notice them, in the worst case scenario, if catch my resistance in the MacBook sending me to the Web, her answer is let’s change the font, ad bold that word, in the iPad, for now, the answer is silence and I can get back to be focus on my writing.
I have learn that the less distractions and the more I can focus in the writing and not in the tool the more I write, and that for a writer is a good thing, the iPad has remove the friction, and allow me to focus more on the writing and less in the distractions.
 

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Augusto Pinaud

Augusto Pinaud es Coach de Tecnología de Productividad Bilingüe, Especialista en Nozbe Teams. Augusto trabaja con dueños y gerentes de pequeñas empresas, ejecutivos y profesionales en productividad, tecnología y mejora de procesos utilizando una variedad de tecnologías de productividad.

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