*sigh* My husband is at home while he looks for a job. He's been home about a month now and to be completely and bluntly honest, he's driving me up the wall. It's interfering with my creative process and I just about can't stand it anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I love him dearly and wouldn't trade him for the world. Without him in my life, I wouldn't be the well balanced and perky person that I am now. Well...maybe I would, but I doubt it.

The problem is the fact that when he's home, I feel like I have to entertain him or something. I'll be bent over my little netbook, typing up a storm with my earbuds in, and I can feel his eyes burning into me. I look up and I see his mouth moving but I can't hear him because I have Muse blaring in my ears and my train of thought is derailed with lots of fatalities. It's very frustrating, especially when I'm mid sentence and then come back to finish it and can't remember where I was going with it.

So how do you manage to work through distractions? What I've done recently is institute work time. When my computer is on, the earbuds are in, and my fingers are flying over those keys, do not interrupt me for anything short of a fire or other natural disaster. When I come up for air, then you can tell me whatever you were thinking about an hour ago that wasn't important enough to stop me mid sentence. My husband also knows now that I try to work between the hours of 9AM and 12 Noon. During that time, unless otherwise stated, I'm working. When I'm taking my break in the middle, then bother me.

The other thing I decided to do was stop noticing him sitting there, looking at me with those bored eyes. I pretend he's not there and he's agreed to forget anything strange that I do while listening to music and letting my muse inspire me.

Just like when you're working a lot of hours outside the home and aren't sure when you'll find the time to write, you have to decide what's the most important to you. Is the distraction worth it? If it's a child (or a pregnant Shih Tzu two weeks away from delivering), it probably is. If it's a bored husband who should be out doing something else with his time? That's not worth derailing your writing over. If you have the passion to write, you'll be able to work through it.