6 Tools To Help You Focus and Avoid Distractions Online

Ryan Dejaegher
Jul 10, 2017 · 7 min read
distractions-700x420
distractions-700x420

We carry a device in our pocket that bleeps and bloops all day, fighting to get our attention. Sites are designed to be “sticky” to keep people there as long as possible.

Distractions hurt our ability to focus on real meaningful work and we have more distractions than ever. The good news is there are tools that will help you take back your attention.

Today I want to share some tools that will help you focus and beat distractions online. Before looking at the tools it’s important to understand the cost of distractions and how sites work against you.

The Cost Of Distraction And Interruption

6949-49488-1-PB.jpg
6949-49488-1-PB.jpg

It seems harmless to quickly check your email, check the notification you just received, or see who “liked” your latest photo on Instagram. But it doesn’t take long for these seemingly small distractions to compound.

It takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption, according to Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine.1

Research has also shown that in the case of notifications it doesn’t matter if you “ignore” them. The awareness that you received a notification is enough to impact your focus.

Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance. We found that cellular phone notifications alone significantly disrupted performance on an attention-demanding task, even when participants did not directly interact with a mobile device during the task.2

This wouldn’t be such a big deal if you were only getting 1–2 notifications/interruptions each day. But consider that the average office worker receives 121 emails per day (source).

If you haven’t adjusted your notification settings at all that’s 121 notifications just from email. Imagine the number when you start adding notifications from social media, text messages, and phone calls.

How Sites Keep You Distracted

playing
playing

Apps and websites are getting incredibly smart about eliminating friction. Remember when you had to manually play the next show on Netflix or choose another video on YouTube? That’s too hard. Now the default action is to simply keep playing video’s, no action required.

Consuming content on social media is just as easy. There is no such thing as the “next page” on Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram. You can scroll forever and you’ll keep getting new content. If anyone ever gets to day one of Facebook, it’s game over.

Finally there’s the almost impossible to ignore clickbait headlines. You know exactly what I’m talking about:

“7 Awkward Child Stars That Are Surprisingly Hot Now!”

It’s worse than the Weekly World News.

chaney
chaney

These headlines all employ a tactic known as the “curiousity gap.”

The curiosity gap is the space between what we know and what we want or even need to know. — Copyhackers

It creates a gap that we need to close by getting the full story. Who are these child stars? There’s no doubt it’s effective but it’s been beaten to death by sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed.

Now that you know how sites keep you distracted it’s time to share the tools that will help you fight back.

Tools for Desktop

1. Focus (Mac)

focus-screenshot-1
focus-screenshot-1

Price: $19.99/Free trial

Focus lets you block distracting websites AND apps. It also uses the pomodoro technique to help you work in short bursts of time.

There are tools that block websites but they don’t help you stay out of distracting apps like Mail or Messages on your computer. This helps you stay focused on a very specific app (i.e. text editor, or writing app)

Focus can be toggled on/off but if you’re really crazy you can enable a “hardcore” mode which prevents you from disabled Focus. The only way to turn it off is to restart/shutdown your computer.

By default Focus has a bunch of sites already blacklisted so you don’t need to add them yourself. You’ll find the usual suspects: Facebook, Twitter, reddit, buzzfeed etc.

focus-screenshot-2
focus-screenshot-2

If you’re tempted to go to a site you’ll be greeted with a motivational quote that can help remind you what’s important and get back to work.

Finally it offers scheduling to toggle Focus automatically. You can set a schedule for the whole week, or individuals days and specific timeframes.

2. Escape 2 (Mac)

screen1600x1000
screen1600x1000

Sixty minutes on social networks every day equals 45 working days every year.

You have better things to do.

Price: $13.99

Think you’re not spending that much time online? Think again.

Escape 2 won’t block sites but it will keep a running log of how much time you’ve spent on distracting sites

It also lets you create a “quota” that you can alot to sites and will show you how much you’re above or below that quota. This is a great tool if you don’t want to block a site entirely but want some awareness on how much time you’re actually spending on certain sites.

3. Do Not Disturb (Mac/iOS)

ios10-iphone6-settings-do-not-disturb
ios10-iphone6-settings-do-not-disturb

Price: Free

Do not disturb is a built in feature on iOS and macOS that allows you to silence any incoming calls, messages, notification as long as it’s turned on.

The problem with mobile phones is that it can be hard to establish boundaries, there’s an expectation that you should always be available. Without any true boundaries how can you ever have the space for focused work.

In their natural state, smartphones act like children: they’re demanding, they have little ability to distinguish between important and unimportant things, and if you ignore them it’s a tragedy.

This is a great feature and is really easy to turn on/off.

If you’re afraid you’ll miss important calls or messages, then I’d recommend changing your notification settings to turn off the apps that are most distracting.

Browser Extensions

4. Ad Block (Chrome/Safari/Firefox)

Price: Freemium

Ad block will remove any ads that may appear on the sidebar of a site

It will also remove annoying “From Around The Web” posts from things like Outbrain and Taboola.

Screen Shot 2017-07-02 at 4.21.57 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-07-02 at 4.21.57 PM.png

The one downside is that some sites will display a sob story about how ads pay for the site. When this happens you can temporarily disable Ad Block to view the content.

5. Newsfeed Blocker (Chrome/Safari)

Price: Free

This will let you use Facebook without the distraction of the newsfeed. When you go to Facebook there will be a big blank section in the middle where the newsfeed typically is.

Screen Shot 2017-07-02 at 2.13.51 PM
Screen Shot 2017-07-02 at 2.13.51 PM

This helps you be more deliberate about what you went to Facebook for and avoid getting sidetracked by the newsfeed.

6. WasteNoTime (Chrome/Safari)

WasteNoTime3-popover
WasteNoTime3-popover

Price: Free/Donate

WasteNoTime is a mix of Focus and Escape 2.

You can add sites to a blocklist and set a quota for how long you can spend on those sites. After you’ve reached your quota, the sites will be blocked and going to any site will display a motivational quote.

If you’re not quite ready to get rid of social media or distracting sites entirely, this can be a good way to still use those sites for shorter periods of time.

Be Deliberate With Your Focus

“What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore — plays in defining the quality of our life.” — Cal Newport, Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Checking your phone, going through email, or going to (insert social network) multiple times a day has become a habit. These tools can help to begin the process of breaking those habits. There is limited time in the day and your focus is precious, don’t let it go to waste.

  1. How Distractions At Work Take Up More Time Than You Think, How Distractions At Work Take Up More Time Than You Think, http://blog.idonethis.com/distractions-at-work/
  2. Notifications Are the New Distractions | Psychology Today, Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwin-s-walks-and-churchill-s-naps/201507/notifications-are-the-new-distractions

Originally published at Ryan Dejaegher.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade