Gain Freedom by Disabling Your Network Connection

Recently I discovered Freedom for Mac OS X. This application disables all wireless and ethernet networking on your computer for up to three hours at a time. When you open the application it asks you ‘how many minutes of freedom’ you would like.

Set the amount, hit ‘OK’ and it you will not be able to use your internet or your wireless network anymore. Afterwards your connections will be re-enabled. You can quit Freedom before the time you set, but this does not get you back on the internet. You will have to restart your computer to for that.

Why would we want to do something like that? Is it so hard to keep yourself focused on your task at hand? Yes, for some people it is! What could be so distracting then? There are more than a few things that can keep you away from what you should be doing. Read more

Close All Those Browser Tabs!

How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Be honest. Are you going to have a look at all those websites today or will you keep the tabs open until you find some time to review them, maybe later this week?

Every morning I open my RSS reader (NewsFire in my case) and the feeds come pouring in. Great! Fresh content! I start hitting my spacebar and scanning the headlines. But then there’s a voice inside my head warning me, “if you’re going to read all these articles, it will take you more than an hour, are you willing to spend so much time this morning just reading what other people have to say? Don’t you have to start working?”. It’s good to have this built in warning system, but then what am I going to do, because I already started hitting that spacebar and reading the news? Read more