It started with using Q10 (a full-screen text editor). When you use this text editor there is nothing else on the screen: just the text you’re typing, according to your preferred column width and background and foreground. Prior to this I was already using EditPad for my writing needs. I don’t even remember when I used MS Word last. I kept using it for saving files though because clients prefer doc files.

There were three activities I was using bloated software for: MS Word for writing, Photoshop for random graphic work and Dreamweaver for PHP coding (all pre-installed by my Laptop vendor). I remember spending hours getting the right font shape or shade. Although I used Dreamweaver just for coding, it was so resource hungry that I couldn’t run another application while working on it. Frankly, I had no problem with MS Word, it’s just that I wanted to use a text-editor rather than a word processor.

About 4 months ago I switched to Ubuntu (a Linux version) completely and automatically stopped using all Windows software. For sending DOC files to my clients I switched to the OpenOffice writer. For doing PHP coding I started using Komodo Edit, which is lighter, and quite better than DW (although it has some problem with handling larger files). Since there is no better alternative to Photoshop (GIMP doesn’t even come near) I haven’t done a single graphic work for the past 4 months. In fact I redesigned this entire website to make the layout graphic-free. All the “cool utilities” I’d been using for years, I stopped using. I deleted 40 GB of software that I’d been downloading and backing up for years. I also deleted files and folders I haven’t used for the past 4 years.

Primarily, I need my laptop for

• Content writing
• PHP coding
• Communication
• Managing tasks

As you notice, I haven’t included graphics work because I was doing that simply for designing my own websites, and only I know how much time I’ve spent designing and redesigning my websites (and I regularly use just a couple of them).

Since I couldn’t find an alternative of Q10 in Ubuntu, I had to make do with OpenOffice writer for a while. I also used the gEdit text editor that comes with Ubuntu, but it had some line break issues when I transferred the text to the word processor (for final formatting).

For the past 3 years I’ve been using Google apps to manage my email. This means I can use the Gmail interface with my business email ID. I never configured its POP3 features and have been managing my email online from the beginning. It not only lets me manage different conversation threads, it also lets me find old emails fast. Of course I never have had to take email backups.

My writers keep sending me attachments when I outsource my work to them. A couple of months ago I started opening the files in Googledocs instead of downloading the attachments. Whatever editing and proofreading needed to be done, I did in Googledocs, and then sent the files to my clients straightaway as doc attachments. I created folders for different writers and started sharing with them so that they could directly save the files in those folders. Eventually I started using Googledocs for working on my own documents too, and now, no documents are saved on my local drive. I don’t need many word processing features and I rarely use spell checks and thesaurus etc., or use online references.

The only files I have to save locally are my media files and PHP files. Once I figure out how to edit PHP files online I’ll stop using Komodo Edit too. For managing my tasks I regularly use Tadalist and occasionally, Remember My Milk. To generate my invoices this month I started using Zoho. For instant messaging and voice chat I use Empathy and Skype. Since I’m not a power user when it comes to Twitter and FaceBook, using Tweetdeck was an overkill and hence I switched to Brizzly.

So basically I’m saving no information locally and I have minimum software installed. How does it let me get less distracted?

You get distracted when one, you can easily do the things that distract you, and two, when you spend more time trying to be productive, rather than actually being productive. Ubuntu versions of various software tools are not easily available and even if they are, it’s often tedious to make them work the way you like them to work. This encouraged me to install less and less software, and totally chuck away tools I use once in may be 3 months.

Now each morning all I have to do is, fire up my browser and start working. Even when I’m typing this, nothing else is visible on my laptop screen. In Googledocs you can remove the upper portion by pressing CRTL SHIFT F and in FireFox you can press F11 to get full screen view. So it’s just you and your text.

Putting everything online (in the Cloud) saves me the trouble of constant backups and a desire to do everything on my own. It also enables me to work from any machine…it means my work doesn’t depend on a single machine. It helps me focus on just the necessary.

And what if I need some graphic work? I’ll outsource. Ever since I started outsourcing my writing projects I’ve become more eager to pay for services rather than spending my own time. It’s not that bad to pay people for services that help you save time…you can put that time to some better use.

Result: my earnings from content writing this month so far have been the highest ever.