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If you’re the type who would plug away for two straight hours until your eyes start to blur, this more regimented system could help provide you with a little more structure and rest time. This technique aims to keep your mind refreshed and agile as you work. After four pomodoros, you take a longer, 15- to 20-minute break. Since its creation in the ‘80s, the technique has been done most often with kitchen timers Focus Booster is its digital extension.Īccording to the rules of the technique, the app breaks your tasks down into 25-minute sessions (“pomodoros”), each followed by a five-minute break. This app is specifically based on the pomodoro technique, a time management system that breaks tasks down into timed blocks separated by short breaks.

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It can also block out everything else, set your chat status to “away” and give you special messages and alerts to keep you on task.Ĭost: 60-day free trial, then $29 (with money-back guarantee) 3. So, when you launch your “writing” action (for whatever time limit you allocate), Concentrate will open a Word doc for you (either a new one or one you’ve already saved), open up your thesaurus site and launch Pandora for you.

Let’s say that when you write, you need to access Word, your favorite online thesaurus site (we all use them in a pinch), and Pandora for a little background music.

It even goes the extra mile by opening up necessary applications for you. Concentrate allows you to select which applications and sites are allowed and which are off-limits based on the task you’re doing. But when you’re doing social media management for your blog, they’re kind of necessary. Okay, let’s say that most of the time, Facebook and Twitter are a horrible distraction for you. Are you a secret Amazon shopper? A fantasy football roster-checker? Add these sites to your blocked list to have them blocked as well.Ĭost: $15 (with a 90-day money-back guarantee) 2. You can also add any other sites that tend to pull you away from your work. That’s right - if you feel the itch and try to cheat, the only way to sneak around a timed block is by rebooting your computer altogether.Īnti-Social is made to block over 30 social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Hulu and Reddit. You can choose timed blocks from 15 minutes up to eight hours (if you’re feeling really determined), and the app “keeps you honest” by cleverly lacking a way to turn it off.

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Anti-Social eliminates the temptation to update your status by blocking these sites altogether. If you’re always lured from your projects by the siren call of Facebook and Twitter, this app’s for you. Here are some of the top ones: ( Click to tweet this list) 1. Luckily, you can get technology back on your side with a slew of super helpful concentration apps that help you focus, block out distractions and get to work. While the Internet and all its glorious tools can make a freelancer’s work easier, it also provides so very many ways in which to avoid your work altogether and get lost in an abyss of never-ending stuff: some of it quasi-work-related (hey, LinkedIn’s a networking tool!), some of it just an excuse to procrastinate. Which actually reminds me, I haven’t updated my LinkedIn profile in a while… Sorry - just had to check out the latest Grumpy Cat meme on Facebook. You work on your own terms - within the scope of client deadlines and expectations, of course.

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