How do I deal with distractions when working on a computer?

Question

I spend most of my working day on a computer and know that when I am "in the zone" I am extremely productive. Getting to "the zone" is very dependent upon the task itself and environmental distraction in the office (open plan, meetings etc.).

But I also suffer from "tools" like Gmail, Outlook and instant messaging - which are required for my work - but can also get in the way.

I know of suggested techniques like only doing email in the morning but they're mostly not directly applicable as I do need to respond to/process email more frequently than that.

What methods or tools can be used to limit the time on these tools and become more productive?

Answer 1

• Email is very distracting if you are reactive to it. Set a schedule and stick to it: e.g. check emails not more than once an hour; determine the priority of replies/actions to be taken based on new email and only perform the critical ones right away, otherwise "park" them and get back to the task you were doing.
• Make sure you have filters set up in your email to ensure that anything not so important does not get in the way, e.g. use Priority Inbox in Gmail and set filters for newsletters etc so these messages skip the Inbox. Then only check the rest of the email (which has been filtered) at set times (like start and/or end of the day).
• Use Busy and/or Invisible in your IM. Only reply to important messages and again "park" not so important ones (this is easy with Google Talk/Gmail because you can come back to the chat later).
• Separate work and personal IM to eliminate friendly distraction.
• RescueTime is great but don't get obsessed with it. Again, check it only on a regular schedule, i.e. at the start/end of the day/week.

Overall, the best thing you can do is stop being reactive to distractions. Acknowledge, park and come back later when you have time (alloted for this kind of catch up work).

Bonus: If you really want to make your Gmail inbox to be as un-interruptive as possible then set all labels (expect for vitally urgent) to be hidden so you are not bothered by unread counts of other less important labels.

P.S.: I think it's almost a must that you clear out the Inbox to begin with and don't have any unread email in it so you are not tempted to read unread emails from the past. Once you have filters, etc then unread email of lesser importance will be safely hidden from you until the time you can get to it.

Answer 2

I like using the Chrome extension called StayFocusd. You can add your time-waster websites to a list, and any time you spend on those websites comes from a shared pool of minutes. Once you've hit your limit for the day, it blocks access to those sites.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji

Answer 3

What works well for me is the Pomodoro method, which forces you to focus for 25 mins, see: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Answer 4

This is a topic relevant to me too. For me I indeed think there are also technical tools lacking. Because I want to block internet access "smartly" - or at all for the first part. I didn't find a reliable, cross-computer solution that didn't slow down my network speed (like inbuilt router features seem to do).

For IM, I don't use it anymore, I only use skype and mostly am in "busy" mode, even if the "jumping" unread msg/calls counter also makes you crazy. But in this case just remove it from the visible tray part for the time being. Also, ask your coworkers/company to use a dedicated work IM client, like Microsoft Lync! If they don't want Lync (I can understand), just say "x will be our work IM", e.g. Meebo or Pidgin or whatever. Instead of RescueTime I prefer "ManicTime" by the way. Even though I rarely review my times (it's too confusing in ManicTime) and they have some basic issues with logging multiple actions/categories after one another (it's basically impossible, you only log "tags").

How does Outlook get in your way in comparison to GMail? This all depends on your (company and personal) setup! As long as Outlook doesn't crash (it does for me all the time), aren't both similarly distracting? The answer to the question how to limit the time: Decide to limit the time and execute ruthless discipline! It's all a mind game, so sadly you'll have to fix your mind first. ;)

And concerning the e-mails maybe a golden tip: Separate external and internal e-mails! Maybe additionally separate "boss" and "infantry" e-mail. Thus if you get kinda unimportant (or CC:) stuff, mostly all the internal chatter that is distracting and sadly still distributed by e-mail, it will end up getting filtered into a folder you could clean out / process daily after your regular work hours! Thus you still can get "push e-mail" from all external parties (which you can't filter effectively anyways), while keeping yourself afloat the internal company chatter! Of course it would help if your superiors would also ask for and implement stricter e-mail and IM rules! Because otherwise people won't change their behavior. As IM is mostly unmonitored, this is a special risk. Here you should just try to be as professional as possible and act accordingly (make this clear) towards your IM chat partner.

Except for that, you could set your smartphone to "flight mode"...while I'm missing a "flight mode" button for my PC ;) as I won't unplug my LAN cable all the time or mess around in the network settings. (And because I'd need a flight mode that allows internet radio, which helps me concentrate on my work!)

So as a last tip, maybe think about which music would make you most concentrated, gather a few internet radio stations with such music, buy yourself a proper noise-isolating (bluetooth) on/over-ear headset and you'll be immediatly much more concentrated. (Assuming you're not a call-center agent. :P)

Also an open-door policy and maximum meeting time rules (esp. for such "open-door meetings"!) might help reduce the stupid e-mail ping pong, as people will just show by.

Last but not least: http://sentenc.es/, e.g.: http://five.sentenc.es/

Answer 5

This is a major issue for me as well. I'm still trying to improve my concentration because I will get distracted by anything, but here's what I do so far:

Music - I find when I'm listening to music I'm much more productive. It helps that it blocks out coworkers and background noise, but just in general I'm more likely to focus on my work rather than goof off. I think I'm different in that I can listen to almost any music and still concentrate so if this is hard for you, try classical or other instrumental music.

Leechblock - This is the only "internet blocker" program that I've found that works for me. Nothing for Chrome works, unfortunately, because it's too easy to hit shift-esc, bring up the (Chrome) task manager, and kill them. So I have to use Firefox, and Leechblock is just hard enough to get around that it usually works for me.

Pomodoro - I use a simple variant of the Pomodoro method - 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off, and that's it. Basically Leechblock only allows me to access anything non-work related for the first 10 minutes of every hour. I find this is better than 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off, because say I need to write a personal email - I may not be able to finish that in 5 minutes.

More details on my Firefox setup: I have two profiles - one personal one, one work one. The bookmarks on the personal profile are synced with those at home with xmarks. Leechblock on this profile is what I described above - everything is blocked (with very few non-distracting exceptions, like Pandora for example) at all times except the first 10 minutes of each our. The work profile only has work-related bookmarks. Leechblock on this profile blocks everything not work-related at all times.

So when I want to go to facebook, gmail, etc. - I have to use the personal profile, and it has to be in the first 10 minutes of an hour. Yes, I can open Firefox's profile manager, create a new profile, and use that, but doing that, combined with the fact that I have to log into all of these sites (e.g. gmail) over again make it just cumbersome enough that it usually stops me from doing it. But if I really need to quickly send a personal email, then I can do it.

Answer 6

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned simplynoise.com.

The oscillating brown noise, which sounds like sea waves, blocks everything out and helps me to relax and focus. It's even better than music--but only if you have good headphones.

It also works wonders to help babies sleep. ;)

Answer 7

Those are things that very helpful for me:
1.pomodoro technique and pomodoro timer
2."cans" (big headphones) and music
3.planning

Answer 8

On a Mac or unix system you can block time-sucking websites at the system level by adding

127.0.0.1 www.nytimes.com
127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com
127.0.0.1 www.otherdistractingsites.com

to your /etc/hosts file. This tells your computer that the website is located on your computer. Since it's not, your browser will fail to load anything if you try to navigate to that page. A few sites are more complicated to block using this method. For instance, to effectively block facebook I had to add this to my /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.connect.facebook.com

To unblock any of these urls, you have to reopen the file and comment them out with a # character. I prefer this method to browser plugins because it is so easy to circumvent a plug-in by simply opening up a different browser.

For writing or coding, do all your main editing and composing in a full screen text editor. Even if your final formatting will be done in a WYSIWYG editor like Word or an email client, this spartan computing environment is all you really need for most tasks. I spend ~70% of my tube-time with just TextMate and Terminal because they are all I need to get things done.

Answer 9

Try the following:

1. Virtual Desktops - like Deskspace that comes from Otaku Software. Allows you to get what Linux always had - multiple desktops.

I use it to move mail clients, messengers, browsers etc. to different virtual windows. If you don't see it, you don't get interrupted

1. Use full-screen editors like OMMWriter. Comes with its own "easy listening" sound bytes and essentially removes distractions. LifeHacker has carried many software examples that let you get a full screen editor

Answer 10

1. Analyze what waste your time
2. Keep disconnecting from Internet. Whether you are reading online journals, news, study materials, or anything else, download their offline copy. And read from them.
3. Make a rule to be away from social sites like facebook, google+, twitter. Access them once in a week or on weekend only.
4. Use Google calendar like utility which can remind you for an event. It can be synced with facebook events and can update you by sending SMS. No need to check facebook daily yo know about any event.
5. Filter mails in gmail. I heard that you can set SMS reminder for mails. Set it for important mails. So you'll not have to sign in.

Out of computer: 1. Keep your mobile away. Or keep it on silent (excludes important number like your boss, or parents)

Remember: working longer on computer affect your eyes, health, and your productivity as well. So take rest of 10-15 mins after every 1-2 hours.

Answer 11

I agree with others that tracking your time is fundamental to the solution. Here's a really crazy time-tracker (it works by randomly sampling you, so it's sort of passive like RescueTime in that you don't have to remember to log your time, but also doesn't try to automatically infer what you're doing based on what windows are in the foreground, since that's wrought with problems) that you might like, called TagTime: http://messymatters.com/tagtime

[disclosure: TagTime was my and Bethany Soule's idea]

Answer 12

Turn off automatic email notifications so that you never are distracted by incoming email. Since you are required to check email regularly, set an alarm at say, four times each day.

Then perhaps you shouldn't feel so guilty about doing other things at work: check out the article Web Surfing Helps at Work, Study Says.

Answer 13

If you're using a Mac, there are many apps out there which I find extremely helpful for productivity, and to stop the computer from wasting your time.

Generally speaking, I find this Mac.Appstorm list pretty helpful: 15 Mac Apps to Help You Focus and Work Productively