[ragtag]

Computers are meant to increase our productivity, but sometimes they seem to do the opposite. The problem (and the great thing about them) is that inside the computer there is a whole world of things you can do, besides your current task. There is an infinite number of possible distractions.

I read somewhere that you should avoid reading, eating and working in bed, as by doing so you would be associating your bed with other things besides sleeping, which in turn could make it harder for you to get to sleep at night.

I think the same may be true for computers. We use them for websurfing, forums, mail, watching films, playing games etc. etc. And in our mind they become associated with a multitude of entertaining tasks. This, at least for me, seems to cause two things:
1) If I'm working on something on the computer, for instance drawing, and I'm tired or my motivation is a little down, I'm much more likely to procrastinate by doing a little web surfing, checking mail or something.
2) Because all these possibilities are there, only one click away, I'm less focused on what I'm acutally doing than I would be if not sitting in front of a computer. Even though I never turn on any instant messaging, mail application, or anything that might pop up to interrupt me when I want to work on something. But just because these things are on the computer, I'm less focused than I would be if drawing on paper.

I don't really have a solution to this, other than try to improve my focus in general. Any and all suggestions welcome?

Ragnar

p.s. I know that for drawing I could just switch to using paper, but I do other work on the computer such as 3D art and programing which can't realistically be done on paper.