[Stephanie Marks]

Ok seriously, is there some kind of child lock that I can put on that d*mn screen!? No matter what I tell myself I click refresh like every 20 FRIGGIN minutes. It's on my phone. I CANT ESCAPE IT!!!

I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about the addiction, but noooooo it's real and it's SCARY. I keep eyeballing the borrow line like "Move. Moooooove. MOVE D*MN YOU!"

 

[I'm a Little Teapot]

I hear you! If you're using a Mac you can get the Self Control app for free. It lets you block sites individually.

 

[Amanda M. Lee]

I lock the phone in the bedroom and turn the wireless off when I'm writing.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Now that you mention it - I'm obliged to go and check 

 

[Stephanie Marks]

I'm on my iPhone

 

[Lydniz]

I'm on my iPhone

Take the phone to Mordor and throw it into the depths of Mount Doom. You know it's the only way.

 

[dianapersaud]

Ok seriously, is there some kind of child lock that I can put on that d*mn screen!? No matter what I tell myself I click refresh like every 20 FRIGGIN minutes. It's on my phone. I CANT ESCAPE IT!!!

I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about the addiction, but noooooo it's real and it's SCARY. I keep eyeballing the borrow line like "Move. Moooooove. MOVE D*MN YOU!"

I just got through checking mine

When you have a promotion going on- it's hard not to check and refresh every five seconds. I know. Been there done that (last week as a manner of fact.)

Give yourself permission to check during a promotion and then force yourself to another task: doing chores or better yet- writing your next book.

I am always composing in my head when I can't write/type it. I have to force myself to get up and do something different or I will spend all day hitting "refresh".

Convince yourself your time is better spent writing your next book and once you start focusing on that- it becomes easier to stop checking. When I write, I close my browser, so I'm not tempted to check.

 

[dianapersaud]

Take the phone to Mordor and throw it into the depths of Mount Doom. You know it's the only way.

I take back my advice, this ^^ is so much better. I would toss my laptop in, but I need it to type....

 

[nonbreaking space]

try thinking of it this way:

every distraction from writing costs you time that you aren't writing.
every time you aren't writing, you're costing yourself money that you could be making IN ADDITION to the money you keep checking to see if you've made.

 

[Stephanie Marks]

I just got through checking mine

When you have a promotion going on- it's hard not to check and refresh every five seconds. I know. Been there done that (last week as a manner of fact.)

Give yourself permission to check during a promotion and then force yourself to another task: doing chores or better yet- writing your next book.

I am always composing in my head when I can't write/type it. I have to force myself to get up and do something different or I will spend all day hitting "refresh".

Convince yourself your time is better spent writing your next book and once you start focusing on that- it becomes easier to stop checking. When I write, I close my browser, so I'm not tempted to check.

But... But... I don't plan on having a promotion for a pretty long time! That would mean going days without knowing. Thank god I work nights. I have to sleep during the day and the the dashboard doesn't update in the middle of the night. But I still check like, 30 times a day.

 

[Stephanie Marks]

try thinking of it this way:

every distraction from writing costs you time that you aren't writing.
every time you aren't writing, you're costing yourself money that you could be making IN ADDITION to the money you keep checking to see if you've made.

I love this. The only problem here is that I'm a multitasking queen. At the moment I'm writing these forum posts, creating a new newsletter campaign, sending said canpaign and texting you best friend all at the same time. Taking 2 seconds to check a website doesn't really cut into my writing much lol. I think thats why I've never understood when people say social media takes up too much time. I'm always thinking "but aren't you doing 6 other things at the same time?"

 

[katrina46]

If you are going to do this with the month to month sales, keep your eyes averted from the returns column. You will inevitably get them and even if it's only one it stings a little.

 

[k1234]

Haha! By sheer force of will, I promised myself that I wouldn't check my sales dashboard all weekend from Friday midnight to Sunday midnight...while I was running a promotion... I kept repeating the mantra "My happiness does not depend on how many sales I make today. My happiness does not depend on how many sales I make today." By Saturday afternoon I was shaking and hyperventilating. So, instead, I started checking my Amazon sales rank to try and figure out if I was making sales.Then, I waited up till midnight on Sunday just to check the dashboard lol.

The addiction is real 

 

[Stephanie Marks]

If you are going to do this with the month to month sales, keep your eyes averted from the returns column. You will inevitably get them and even if it's only one it stings a little.

Oh my got it's like a nightmare!

 

[Stephanie Marks]

Haha! By sheer force of will, I promised myself that I wouldn't check my sales dashboard all weekend from Friday midnight to Sunday midnight...while I was running a promotion... I kept repeating the mantra "My happiness does not depend on how many sales I make today. My happiness does not depend on how many sales I make today." By Saturday afternoon I was shaking and hyperventilating. So, instead, I started checking my Amazon sales rank to try and figure out if I was making sales.Then, I waited up till midnight on Sunday just to check the dashboard lol.

The addiction is real

I've actually only had ONE sale, the rest are borrows. But I'm ok with that. It's cool, it's cool, I just have to remember that I set myself up for that kind of outcome on purpose and with a reason and to not look at the sales line just look at the borrows.

 

[Indecisive]

Another reason to be glad that I still have one of those cheap dumb phones. Costs me about $15 a month, only needs to get plugged in to charge once a week (sometimes less) and the kids don't care about it. Ah.

I keep my sales stat checking to when I have the computer open.

 

[HAGrant]

Ok seriously, is there some kind of child lock that I can put on that d*mn screen!? No matter what I tell myself I click refresh like every 20 FRIGGIN minutes. It's on my phone. I CANT ESCAPE IT!!!

I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about the addiction, but noooooo it's real and it's SCARY. I keep eyeballing the borrow line like "Move. Moooooove. MOVE D*MN YOU!"

Congrats about publishing!

If you're really, really desperate, you could buy an inexpensive TracFone, don't put wireless on it, and turn off your wireless for your other phone. In case you don't know, there's no contract on a TracFone. You just buy minutes and it can sit around forever as a backup phone.

You could also make yourself log on paper every time you check and the time.

OR you could make a deal with yourself that you can check all you want, but only after you walk around the block each time. I did something like that when I lost weight. I told myself I could buy all the candy or junk food I wanted, but I had to walk to the store each time to buy it.

 

[rosclarke]

Leechblock. You can set it to allow you a couple of minutes an hour, or an hour a day, or whatever.