It’s raining and gray in Montreal today, with a forecast of rain through the weekend. Perfect weather to curl up with a cup of tea and a good book. And I have just the one!

I know, I know… you’re saying “No, not another book! I still have 3 others on my desk, just begging to get read!” (I feel your pain. My desk has 2 semi-read books and 5 more to crack open. Oh yeah, and one on my night stand.)

Just indulge me, OK? You can thank me later.

I LOVE everything Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff and his company, Idea Champions, comes up with (in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a stalker). His book Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling, is no exception.

It’s a story about inspiration, ideas, taking action and applying the lessons in your life. Don’t fear — it’s not about systems,  processes, lists and all that boring stuff. No one tells a story quite like Ditkoff. He takes you through the life of Og the caveman, as Og follows his instincts, leading him to invent the wheel. It’s fictional, of course, and that’s what makes it so awesome.

That’s all I’m going to say, ’cause I don’t want to ruin it for you.

It’s a small book — perfect for a quick, powerful and inspiring read over the weekend. Ditkoff’s clever and witty style will have you wishing for more. You can easily read it in 3 hours, depending on how many kids are running around (my general formula is to add 1-2 hours per child).

Read it; I promise you won’t be disappointed. In fact, I’ll read it (again) with you this weekend.

Let’s talk about it on Monday!

Here are some of my stalker links (I’ll add more as I do more cyber-prowling):

• Awake at the Wheel (official book website with a bunch of extras)
• The Heart of Innovation (Idea Champions blog)
• Small Business Big Ideas Podcast (Lissa Boles from True Callings interviews Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff)

Now that we are back to a “normal” routine (hubby’s back at work, kids at daycare) and I’m home with Jasmine trying to work between naps and feedings, I’m finding it difficult to avoid distractions. And there are, oh so many distractions!

The usual suspects are: social media (tweet, tweet), email, internet, baby care and — can you guess??? — blogging.

With the (extended) end-of-month deadline for my Designing a Compelling 30-second Intro v2 guidebook looming over me, I’m feeling the pull of distractions even more. Does this ever happen to you?

Here are 3 ways I use to eliminate (or diminish) distractions:

• Close my speakers. This made a huge difference, because programs, like Outlook, Twhirl, Vision Board, make a sound when updated. If I don’t hear it, I’m not lured into stopping my work to check it out.
• Close all windows on my PC except what I’m working on. For my guidebook, that means keeping only these programs open: MS Word, Notepad and Visual Thesaurus. Everything else gets closed. Out of sight, out of mind.
• Close my PC. This is the most extreme measure, but must be done when I’m in crunch mode. I work much better with pen and paper anyways. I’ll print notes, close my PC, take a notepad and favorite pen, set myself up on the kitchen table and write away. When I’m done I go back to my office and type what I wrote. It may not sound efficient, but I save time by not fooling around on other things.

My latest procrastination-beating tool is Havi Brooks’ Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic (Havi is my current flavor and I’m stalking following her work closely). She teaches a super quick technique (something you wouldn’t expect) to immediately get you into action. I’ve had her book for a week and it’s worked wonders.

Finally, if I’m really resisting doing whatever it is I need to do (and I don’t feel like doing anything about it), I simply stop pretending to work and try not to beat myself up over my lack of focus and discipline. I’ll get up, play with Jasmine, walk to the store or give in to whatever distraction I’m avoiding. I know I’ll do better next time, so there’s no use white-knuckling it.

What are your culprits? How do you overcome them?

This post was created thanks to today’s Back To Blogging inspiration.

On August 23rd, 2006 I published my very first blog post called Are You Biting Off More Than You Can Chew. It seems so long ago…

The person responsible for me starting a blog is my best friend, Eve Leonard. She was my newsletter editor and would constantly say things like “Your style of writing is perfect for blogging,” “You write the way you speak, which is perfect for blogging,” and “You’re always finding neat stuff on the internet. You should start blogging.”

I figured I couldn’t preach about the effectiveness of blogging as a marketing strategy without having one myself. I bit the bullet and started The Savvy Entrepreneur (a name not entire approved by Eve, since she hates the word “entrepreneur”).

I was so nervous, putting myself out there in such a public way. What if I ran out of interesting things to say? What if I say something really stupid and can’t take it back? What if nobody likes me?

But it was also strangely exciting. WOW! My own words on the World Wide Web for all to see.

I’m sure most will agree that blogging is a form of therapy.

At the beginning, I was taking in as much information about promoting a service-based business as possible, so my blog served as an outlet to not only share the information with you, but to process the information in my brain and learn.

Now I like to blog more about: things that irk me; marketing strategies to avoid; defining the lingo; discussing common challenges; things that make me laugh; inspiring quotes; interesting events and helpful resources.

I’m sure this blog has more evolving to do… Hope you stick around for the ride.

What would you like to see more of here? What would you like to see less of?