Why a "ticking clock" is the best productivity tool you'll ever use

If you're having a hard time getting focus... and keeping it... this post is for you.

The freedom of an independent creative comes with a price.

Sure, you don't have to sit stewing in a commute, or deal with obnoxious co-workers, or kiss up to a middle-management mediocrity.

In exchange, you've got to deal with the worst employee of them all.

Yourself.

If you thought managing your own staff was hard, try managing your own self.

Absolute freedom comes with a whole lot of angst.

When you can do anything, you're responsible for everything.

Wiser folk than I have understood this.

The secret to freedom?

It's not total independence from the world.

Freedom is the power to choose your own limitations.

If you wanted to learn a new language, you wouldn't make up your own rules. Nothing stops you, but if you want the native speakers to understand you, you'd best be getting out the dictionary and paying attention.

You can choose not to learn the language if it doesn't agree with you... but you can't choose the grammatical rules and meanings of the words.

That's an important lesson for any independent worker.

If you like things stated abstractly, remember that constraints shape function.

And when you're working on your own, few things make for better constraints than the tick-tock of the clock.

Here's three ways you can use time as your friend.