This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 15, 2021 - November 21, 2021

Working from home was once an office worker’s dream. It became a reality when the Covid-19 pandemic forced almost all companies worldwide to abruptly shutter their offices and instruct employees to work from home indefinitely. 

There are plenty of advantages, including a better work/life balance, greater control over the work environment, ability to make your lunch in your own kitchen and even sneak snuggles on a difficult work day. 

Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to working remotely online — and distractions top the list. 

While the internet is a place where work happens, it is also the place where distractions are only a click away. Relying on willpower to avoid them sometimes just does not seem to work.

Studies show that every time you check your email or social feed or respond to a notification, your mind requires 

23 minutes of refocus time to get back on the task. Managing countless notifications and distractions across multiple platforms makes it infinitely harder to focus and get real work done. 

Fortunately, there are apps to help with that. These are not website blocker apps with parental control software, but tools to help one keep distractions at bay and, hopefully, build better habits.

This software blocks distractions — on both websites and apps — across all devices, simultaneously. Users can set up as many blocklists as they want, then start or schedule a session. So, no more blocking Twitter, Instagram or Netflix on your computer, only to immediately open it on your phone. Once a session starts, all distracting sites and apps are blocked across the board on all your devices. The software comes with a lockdown mode, which makes it impossible to edit the blocklists while a session is active. 

The software offers a trial that includes seven sessions on an unlimited number of devices. Scheduling and lockdown modes are available for premium features that start at US$6.99 a month. https://freedom.to

Frequent interruptions, mainly in the form of noise, break focus, increase stress levels and lower productivity. 

Figuring out what background noise works is tricky, though. The wrong kind can really distract and annoy you, whereas the right kind helps you get in the perfect groove for work.

Noisli offers a mix and match of different sounds to create your perfect sound environment. The free basic plan offers 16 high-quality background sounds, 1½ hours of streaming a day, three curated playlists, a timer and text editor. Paid versions — which start from US$10 — allow users to set the timer to any configuration of hours, minutes or seconds and even set the sound to fade out at five-, 15- and 30-second intervals respectively. https://www.noisli.com

Serene is a productivity system that helps you plan your day. Users can choose a list of websites and apps they find distracting, then block them when it’s time to buckle down and get some work done. You can also list what you want to work on and how long each task will take. 

A countdown timer appears every time you try to open a site that is on the blocklist. Right now, Serene only works on MacOS, but the creators are working on bringing Serene to Windows and other devices. After 10 free deep work hours, you can subscribe at US$4 a month.  https://sereneapp.com

Backed by science, this application provides helps users stay focused, with two-hour-long soundtracks — made up of music and sound — from different genres. 

It was designed based on scientific research with large-scale behavioural tests and brain scans, measuring brain activity reacting to different kinds of music. Brain.fm is available for Android and iOS, with five free trial sessions and a monthly paid subscription of US$6.95. https://www.brain.fm.

LeechBlock is free and works on most major browsers. Users can schedule times for apps to be blocked outright or limit your time on distracting apps by setting rules. 

LeechBlock is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers such as Brave, Opera and Vivaldi.

You can specify up to 30 sets of sites to block, with different times and days for each set. You can block sites within fixed time periods (for example between 9am and 5pm), after a time limit such as “allow up to 10 minutes in every hour” or with a combination of time periods and time limits like “allow up to 10 minutes in every hour between 9am and 5pm”.

With the lockdown feature, you can block sites immediately for a specified duration. You can also set a password or random access code for LeechBlock’s options page, just to slow you down in moments of weakness. https://www.proginosko.com/leechblock

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