When you are a small business owner, there is always so much to do.  There are a million distractions. E-mail is great, how I love e-mail and how I hate e-mail.  Every day I run up and down my stairs from my sewing room to the computer countless times to check in on the computer.  Have I sold anything on-line? Does someone need a shift covered at Beehive? And then there are the phone calls, and the paperwork and the shipping and the buying of supplies and the networking and all the other things to do (oh, like blogging) that sometimes I have to squeeze in time for the most important thing.  Making my product.

 I’m always looking forward to that uninterrupted time when I can get down in my sewing room and really be productive but many times when I finally get down there and attempt to get started, I struggle to stay focused.  My brain is so full of to do lists and ideas and unresolved problems that I just can’t switch gears.  Then before you know it I’m checking my e-mail again and the kids are home from school  so its homework time or  time to cook dinner.

  I’ve come up with a way to help me stay focused and to keep me in my sewing room when my brain is running wild.

 Books on CD.

 I have found that when I am listening to a really great book on CD, I stay put in my sewing room engrossed in what I am listening to, sewing away and just waiting to find out what will happen.  Of course there are times when I need just quiet or some music to let the creative juices flow, but the truth is, there are also many times when the making is just the rhythmic repetition of sewing the same thing over and over. Listening to the story stops my brain from obsessing over the many distractions that are present everyday.

 My favorites are travel journals.  Anything by Bill Bryson is great, but my favorite was “ In a Sunburned Country”.  I learned so much about Australia while my machine hummed away.  And his “The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America” made me laugh out loud and I listened to it twice back to back. The travel journals are good because if you miss a little bit, you are not missing out on plot and can just tune in and out and still enjoy a story being read to you. There was “A Year In Provence” by Peter Mayle that I also loved. I was thinking; sew faster, sew more, I want to go to Provence too.

 I have also caught up on a lot of Classics this way.  I LOVE listening to anything by Charles Dickens on CD.  I knew the story of “A Tale of Two Cities” from high school literature, but having someone read it to me with a British accent while I sew is just divine. I even let my phone go to voice mail (averting another distraction) when I have fabulous writing being read to me.  Try “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” for a really entertaining story.  I had never read this before and this one kept me sewing for a whole 12 CD’s. 

 By far the most moving and powerful book I listened to this year was “Native Son” by Richard Wright.  I can’t believe this book was written in the 40’s because it is so relevant. I couldn’t stop listening, I had to know what happened.  Dinner was definitely late during the week  I was listening to that book, but it was also a really productive week.

Would I take the time to read these classics now?  No.  I should, but the truth is that I won’t.  I can barely make it through a Newsweek article at the end of a busy day, much less a classic.

So that is my secret weapon, books. My librarian mother would be very proud. Check out your local library, most have a pretty good selection of books on CD in this day and age. It definitely helps me avert distraction and maybe it will you too.

Gotta check my e-mail now.