Many freelance writers often face a problem – they fail to motivate themselves to write and finish the project on time. Many people are facing problems due to the presence of different social networking websites, instant messaging services, etc. Although there are numerous distraction-free and feature-rich text editors for Windows, most people face problems because they allow users to do something else while writing. Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. have become such an addiction that we cannot get rid of them. To solve this kind of problem, you may want to check out this distraction-free text editor called Cold Turkey Writer.
Cold Turkey Writer for Windows PC
Cold Turkey is a very lightweight Windows freeware that doesn’t even need to be installed because of its portability. This writing tool is available for free, but the free version doesn’t offer customization options. But the free version should be more than enough to get started.
When you open this editor, it will ask you to set a time or word count-based goal. Based on that preference, it will block everything on your computer. Everything means right from third-party apps to the Task Manager – all the functions will be invisible as long as the time or word count gets over. You cannot minimize Cold Turkey Writer! Neither can you open Task Manager to close it forcibly. This is where it excels. However, this particular feature has an advantage as well as a disadvantage.
Distraction-free text editor
The advantage of such restriction is you will have to concentrate on your writing and forget all the other tasks. Nevertheless, the disadvantage is you cannot open any other app in case you need to check something or gather information. Many times, we open web pages to get info at the time of writing. But as this app doesn’t allow users to open anything at all.
The user interface of Cold Turkey Writer is neat and clean. The white background makes a good environment for writing.
The available features in the free version are:
- Unstoppable: You cannot close this app before you meet the set goals. The only way is to restart your computer.
- Time-based goal: You can set time (e.g. 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.). You have to keep writing till the time ends.
- Word count goal: You can get the desired word count. You must write that many numbers of words to close this app.
After opening Cold Turkey Writer on your Windows machine, you will have first to set a goal i.e., a Time-based goal or a Word count goal. The third option, Don’t block me allows users to close it whenever they want. This is something you have to decide before you start working.
Set a goal and hit the Start button. The writing interface looks like the following image-
There is a progress bar visible on the top of your screen. After reaching the goal, you will get two options i.e. Snooze & Save and Quit.
Drawback of Cold Turkey
Although Cold Turkey helps users to write a certain amount of time or for a certain amount of word, there are still a few things that you may need for better writing. For instance, it has no formatting option. You cannot bold, italic, or underline any word. Not only that, you cannot use Cut-Copy-Paste inside this writer.
If you are okay with all the advantages and disadvantages of Cold Turkey Writer, you can download it from here. The free version offers the following features:
- Timed blocks
- Word count blocks
- Distraction-free writing
- Auto save.
You might want to also take a look Cold Turkey Distraction Blocker too.
