What's on your mind?

I have to admit that I've had a really hard time focusing today. I often have trouble focusing, especially when I have to do some writing. Don't get me wrong - I love writing, even when, like today, it's all about writing Performance Appraisals for my employees (faithful minions, all). I just have a hard time getting all of the distractions of daily life out of the way so I can get down to writing.

When I was in college, I would clean my room and organize my desk before writing a paper or studying for a test. Now I don't always have the luxury of having the time to get my desk cleaned and organized before I have to write, so I have to find other ways of reigning in my thoughts. Sometimes I am successful. Today, however, I was not. Much of what was distracting me was still work . . . schedule stuff, staffing, budget, customers (bless them), projects, and my own required time on the public service desk, Caldecott and Newbery winners, email clean-up, to name a few. I also let myself become distracted by other things . . . hunger, stretching stiff muscles, news from Haiti, stuff I should have done over the weekend and is now on my mind. You know how it is, right?

So - everyone deals with distractions - how do you handle them at work? Do you work better with tight deadlines (like me) or long-range deadlines? Do you have any tips for me so I can have more success as the week progresses?