Distracted by social networks, messengers, 22Bet offers, or endless web surfing while you work? Here are the best tools to help you focus on the really important tasks.
Freedom
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Simply turning off your wifi or pulling the cord out of your computer isn’t effective – you can always do the opposite if you don’t have the willpower. Freedom Internet Blocker disconnects all network connections and ensures that nothing will distract you from your work for a set amount of time. The only way to get the Internet back is to reboot your computer. As an alternative, you can use Webtrate, which is similar in functionality.
SelfControl
If you need the Internet for work, but it’s difficult to resist the temptation to go to Facebook for a minute, try to use a website blocker. In SelfControl, enter the resources that distract you and set the time during which access to them will be limited. Neither restarting your computer nor uninstalling the program will help unblock the sites.
RescueTime
The time tracker lets you see where your precious time is spent. The program allows you to keep track of exactly how much time is spent on each activity on your computer (or other platforms), keeps statistics and displays them as a clear graph.
After you register and install the program on your computer, its icon appears in the desktop tray and tracks your activity during the day. Of course, if you do not turn it off. You can control the application using the context menu: after right-clicking on the icon in the tray, a small menu with functions appears. For example, it’s possible to pause the app for 15 minutes/1 hour/until tomorrow and during this time activity will not be monitored and will not affect the statistics.
Productivity Owl
The owl will only allow you to spend as much time as you like on allowed sites. The list of allowed and prohibited sites is set up manually. You can also choose the days and hours when the owl won’t forbid access to any site. You can check yourself in the “earn respect” tab: for example, based on an analysis of the user’s actions, the owl can report that it is skeptical of his or her attempts to be productive. Analogues to Productivity Owl are Nanny (for Google Chrome) and LeechBlock (for Mozilla Firefox) extensions: they also offer to set time intervals in which sites will be accessible or blocked.
StayFocusd
This extension works like a caring parent: StayFocusd will limit time on distracting sites to a few hours or minutes a day. Want to spend no more than an hour a day on Twitter? Let StayFocusd know that, and the program will close access to the resource when the time runs out.
Any.do
There are procrastination apps that are so complicated that you start putting off trying to figure them out for later. This is not the case: a simple mooing interface and a minimum of required features. The same to-do list as in the diary, just on the smartphone screen. You enter a task – mark a deadline. Once the task is done, you “swipe” it from the screen by moving to the right.
DarkRoom
After downloading the file and installing DarkRoom on your computer, you get a full-screen text editor. It will suit those who have difficulty concentrating and can’t bring themselves to sit down and write, for example, an article. When you are writing, there is always something that distracts you: the temptation to switch to a browser window, check your email and so on. When there are no other windows except for the editor’s window, it allows you to concentrate.
In DarkRoom, nothing distracts you, not even the menus: you can do what you need to do with simple keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+S (save changes in the current file), Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (copy or paste text). If you’re used to using the keyboard for these kinds of actions in your everyday editor, you’ll get the hang of it in no time. The created text is saved in .txt format.
There is no formatting in the editor: while you are “playing” with the font size and indentation, the time passes and the text isn’t written. In DarkRoom, everything is focused directly on the writing (which is the hardest part), but you can edit, refine the details, and change the formatting later, using familiar Word or other standard text editors.
