Think about it: how many times have you opened up Facebook ‘just for a quick check’, and ended up spending a couple of hours looking at photos or planting more strawberries in Farmville? Procrastination is a dangerous habit that can seriously affect your productivity, especially if you work on the web and have access to all sorts of distractions.
The only way to avoid this waste of time is to make use of your willpower and avoid giving in to those temptations until you’ve finished with your work. Luckily for the weakest, there are also special tools to block certain programs and websites, thus preventing them from distracting you at the worst moment.
One of these special programs is ManicTime, a complete tool that logs the amount of time you spend on each program, document or even website. Thanks to a colorful report, which uses bars to represent time, a quick glance is enough to see how you’ve spent a whole day in front of the computer, and what are the programs you’ve spent most time on.
If you prefer to have more control over the time you spend online, then you should install about:me. This Firefox plug-in works as a kind of advanced history log, with specific details about the sites we visit more frequently and the type of files we download more often.
Another interesting plug-in for Firefox is LeechBlock, which lets you block access to certain sites according to a customizable schedule. So, for example, you could ban yourself from Facebook from Monday to Friday between 8 AM and 12 PM to avoid temptations.
Of course, all these tools will be useless if you lack the necessary willpower to overcome distractions and concentrate on your work. A look at some useful tips on how to avoid procrastination can also be quite inspirational.
Do you use any of these tools? What are your personal tricks for improving productivity?
[Via OnSoftware Spain]
