Time (mis)management

I'm a pretty good multitasker. I can talk on the phone, clean the kitchen, make a meal, check whether my shoes work with my outfit, and clean out my e-mail simultaneously without dropping a ball.*

I can concentrate well too, having gone to an elementary school built with few interior walls. The idea was to throw a few hundred little kids into a big room with a library in the middle and nests for each class along the walls with nothing more than tall blackboards on wheels to mark the divisions. You could hear and see everything, all the time. Apparently the kids who did best in this environment were the ones from big families, go figure... mine, though not as big as some, was apparently big enough because I learned to tune out whatever I need to when it's time to get work done.

Unfortunately this is not true for my current project. I'm experiencing 'reverse gravitational pull', something that usually comes up when a story isn't ready to write--it's as though my fingers are being forced away from the keyboard. So today I'm going to try a trick St. Jude recommended: work for 30 minutes, break for 5. And to be sure I don't dawdle online, I'm going to work on paper in a computer-free room. Wish me luck.

*this is merely imagery, since you will note there were no balls in the aforementioned list. In fact, I do sometimes burn the meal.