A whack upside the head

I was asked by a local college student some questions about being a freelancer. One of the questions was how I ignore distractions. My answer was: who says I ignore distractions? Then I went on about how I stay on task, etc... But, really, when you work from home, you can't ignore all distractions.

No, I don't get sidelined doing laundry or housecleaning. But I do get distracted by the internet and all the pretty sparkly things I find there - perhaps from a quick visit to see the lovelies on etsy.com. It can also mean a trip over to smashingmagazine.com, which is where I find a lot of idea starters.

Distraction can have a negative connotation, but I see it as one more way to find the answer - or idea - I'm looking for. Sometimes the best ideas come to me when I'm being distracted.

I love to see the works of other people, read how they were created, what the drive behind them was. Inspiration doesn't have to be from a created product, but can also be the ways others see or find inspiration. In the curl of a cat's tail or a raindrop on the window. Sometimes it's like a whack upside the head: it never occurred to me to look at those things when I'm designing a client's logo.

So if I stop what I'm working on to play with my cat, it's solely for inspiration.