I’m posting this separately from my other trick because they aren’t related. I recently found a Mac shareware app called Freedom which turns off the Internet. In an Internet-needing emergency, you can reboot, but otherwise, it’s off until the time is up.
Somewhat related: I’ve been having a lot more success keeping myself focused since I started using the fullscreen mode of iTerm to do my writing. There’s no clock in the upper right corner of the screen to draw constant glances and I find myself less likely to randomly switch to other apps to check on my feeds, emails, etc.
It’s even slightly helpful for getting myself started, since all I have to do is switch to iTerm and take a look at my notes, at which point I often just pick up where I left off and can continue undistracted. (E.g. this morning a quick app switch to remind myself where I was became a solid 40-minute session—I was putting off breakfast to get stuff done!)
Along the same lines, earplugs (or in-ear phones if you work well with music) help too.
I’ve been using something called iFocus http://www.ifocusonwork.com/ You can use it to track how you spend your computer time, and set goals for how much you can use certain things (email, chat, games etc.). You can also make it force you to work on a specific application for a fixed period of time. Basically a tool for procrastinators or people who are mindful of how they spend their computer time.
I’m posting this separately from my other trick because they aren’t related. I recently found a Mac shareware app called Freedom which turns off the Internet. In an Internet-needing emergency, you can reboot, but otherwise, it’s off until the time is up.
Somewhat related: I’ve been having a lot more success keeping myself focused since I started using the fullscreen mode of iTerm to do my writing. There’s no clock in the upper right corner of the screen to draw constant glances and I find myself less likely to randomly switch to other apps to check on my feeds, emails, etc.
It’s even slightly helpful for getting myself started, since all I have to do is switch to iTerm and take a look at my notes, at which point I often just pick up where I left off and can continue undistracted. (E.g. this morning a quick app switch to remind myself where I was became a solid 40-minute session—I was putting off breakfast to get stuff done!)
Along the same lines, earplugs (or in-ear phones if you work well with music) help too.
I’ve been using something called iFocus http://www.ifocusonwork.com/ You can use it to track how you spend your computer time, and set goals for how much you can use certain things (email, chat, games etc.). You can also make it force you to work on a specific application for a fixed period of time. Basically a tool for procrastinators or people who are mindful of how they spend their computer time.