As a freelance writer who works from home, one of my biggest challenges is procrastination. I would have majored in it in college, but I never got around to visiting my adviser.

Without any further delay, here are the five best things I do to overcome my desire to push everything off:

1. Close out all windows on the computer.
   If I have open the statistics page for my blog, I will keep refreshing the page. If I have a Word document open for another project, I’ll end up seeing something I missed and diving back in. I actually will go in and close every single window first, then deliberately open the windows I need, even if I just closed them (like an Internet browser, for example). I need to set my mind to the GO mode for one (and only one) project.
2. Turn off email in every possible way.
   Email is evil, invasive, overwhelming and distracting. And it’s relentless. I can get anywhere from 5-50 emails in an hour. Almost all of them are one-way communications — things I don’t have to respond to. I turned off the little ghosted notifier that shows up in the corner. I turned off the sounds. I remove my BlackBerry so I can’t see the little red light go off. And I actually took off the “Send/Receive Now” button from my toolbar. Thus, when I’m working, nothing is pinging me or pulling me away.
3. Make a to do list.
   Every time I find myself in a little OCD circle of checking website stats, looking at email and flipping from window to window, I stop and create a list. I look at yesterday’s list, copy the remaining items and highlight the things that are due today. And then I clear my desk except for the list and get going.
4. Invoke your “get serious” voice.
   “Ok, Ziesenis. Get after it,” I’ll say aloud. Somehow I attribute that voice to a higher-ranking employee of the Avenue Z corporation. You have to remember that there are no other employees, and recall that I spend too much time alone. But just saying it aloud gives me a reminder that I’m at work.
5. Take a productive break.
   There are productive breaks and unproductive breaks. An unproductive break is a bath in the middle of the day (which happens), or a jaunt to the coffee shop for a well-justified cupcake. A productive break is a zip up the Hill of Death, a steep street a block away that helps me change gears between projects and focus back on what’s important. Sometimes I just stand on my front steps and stretch in the sunshine, which is also helpful. But to combat procrastination, I am cognizant that my break is a brief break, just a duck out the door to refresh before hitting the books again.