Posted on 5/26/2013

Written By Liz Wassmann

At a lecture I attended with renowned novelist Amy Tan, a student asked what tips she recommended for aspiring writers. Without hesitation, she told the audience to download the internet-blocking app Freedom.

Much has been written about the perils of constant connectivity, and the resulting negative effects on personal relationships and self-worth. And the effect on our work habits? Terrible. The Internet is a time-suck, pulling us away from productivity and constantly tempting us with email pop-ups, flashing headlines and numerous open tabs.

The following programs allow you to save yourself…from yourself. You can block the internet entirely for certain periods of time, or choose specific sites to avoid. I wish I’d heard of these when I was still cranking out papers in college.

1) LeechBlock, free

This Firefox add-on allows you to set certain sites to be blocked at the same time every day or week. So, you could set Twitter to be blocked everyday during work hours but give yourself a half hour to check it at lunch. It’s easy to customize to your schedule and you don’t have to reset it everyday. StayFocusd is a similar add-on for Chrome. After your set time on social media sites is up for the day, you can’t access them anymore.

2) Freedom, $10

This program, mentioned above, is the simplest and most straightforward solution. Choose a length of time (anything less than eight hours) and engage the program. Short of rebooting your computer or uninstalling the program, the Internet will be completely off-limits to you during the time period. The program does one thing, and it does it well. As their site says, think of all the work you could get done for the price of two lattes.

3) Anti-social, $15

If you need to use some websites for work but always find yourself jumping over to check Facebook, this could be the program for you. Anti-Social allows you to block specified sites that distract you. There is no way to get back on without re-booting your computer. As their tagline says, you’ll be amazed how much you can get done when you turn off your friends.

 4) Self-Control, free

This application (Mac OS X only) also blocks specified sites for certain periods of time to allow you to concentrate on work. The catch? There is no way to get back on until the time period is up– which might not be a bad thing.

And if your job involves using social media, like mine does, then it’s really all on you to control how you spend your time. Good luck!

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