How do you avoid getting distracted? I have to write a research paper and I keep getting distracted; I suppose logging off of sciforums would be a good start.
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Give up now. As the great Homer Simpson said "If at first you don't succeed it's probably not worth doing anyway".
I find that distractions help my subconscious mind to think. It's much easier than thinking on purpose. The more I have to do, the more I have to distract myself. In fact, that's why I'm on sciforums all the time while working.
Seriously, if I get to a point in a problem where I'm stumped, I just take a break, and the answer miraculously comes to me without trying.
Do something physically active for an hour or so, particularly something that takes you out of the house. Going to the gym for a workout is ideal. Taking your dog for a walk is a close second and it would make your dog happy. If you're a musician, practice your music for an hour. It needs to be something that will completely clear your mind of the assignment, at least consciously. Then when you come back to it, hopefully, it will seem like an interesting challenge. Exercise doesn't always clear your mind but the endorphins it releases have their own salutary effect and will probably help you focus. In general I would not advise activities like cooking or shopping because they tend to leave a large part of your mind free to contemplate the writing assignment. Try organizing the assignment, to bring in other mental skills and to lure other parts of your mind back away from the distractions. Have you done a bubble chart or even an old-fashioned outline? Not striving to write the paper in rigid sequential order will help. If there's something that needs more work or that you're unsure of, it could be bothering you unconsciously and disturbing your focus. Bubble charts in particular are great for finding those little problems and working through them. And bubble charts are one of those things, like playing go, that have just been waiting for the computer age: It is so much easier to do one with Visio than with a pencil and paper! Don't look at the distractions as your problem. They're always there, yet at other times you don't fall prey to them. Try to determine why, this particular time, your mind is so easily distracted. The problem is almost certainly internal, not external.
