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One of the biggest problems I have when writing new articles for LookLinkLove is staying on topic.  I almost always end up writing about something completely different from what I was originally trying to say.  Thanks to computers it’s easy to remove unwanted lines of text and start over, but sometimes you can avoid doing that completely.  There are five different, but equally simple ways to stay on topic while writing a new blog post. If you’re like me and you believe that everyone in the world has at least some level of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) then you might find some of these tools useful.

• Tip 1: Close all windows other than your post window, and your research windows.  Even music can be a distraction sometimes, it all depends on how good you are at focusing.  If you leave windows open to sites like youtube, you’ll probably find yourself watching music videos, or checking out one of those optical illusions your friend sent you through an email.  Then once you get back to what you were writing you won’t really know WTF you were originally trying to say.
• Tip 2: Write down some of your ideas on a piece of paper.  Kind of like the brainstorming you did back in school.  This will give you something to look back at if you ever lose track of what’s going on.  If you want to be even more Geeky, you could write down an entire outline and then your post would practically write itself.  I doubt you would have much problems staying on topic unless you decided you absolutely had to stray from your outline.
• Tip 3: Use Dark Room for a “distraction free environment”.  As described on the website, “Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text.”
  I use Dark Room on occasion, but in my opinion it is a little bit too extreme.  It blocks out beeps from any programs like Norton, MSN messenger, and etc… While this could be very useful, maybe you would miss out on something important.
• Tip 4: Close the doors and lock out all intruders.  If you’re a parent then you probably shouldn’t block your toddlers access, but try and stop the people you care about less from bothering you while you write.  When you’re at home, it’s harder to get work done because of the constant distraction that comes from family members and phone calls.  Then again, I’m not saying you should become some sort of recluse either, absolutely not… socialize!

The Most Obvious Tip:

• Tip 5: Review your post before you post it.  Although this is probably the most retarded tip you’ll ever read for staying on topic, it’s also the most effective.  Even though you may not have been able stay on topic while you were writing the post, you don’t want your random ramblings to escape to your blog readers.  While this tip completely defeats the purpose of this article (since it was supposed to tell you how to avoid needing to remove offtopic strains of text after you were done writing) I still think this is a useful tip to add to the list.  No article should go un-reviewed, even if you were perfectly on-topic the entire time.