For a year or so I’ve been saying, I wish it were easy to turn the Internet off at home or in the office when I need to really focus on the task. Having the Internet just a click away makes it too easy to do everything but work.
Seth Godin suggested one solution to the problem: have one machine for work and one machine for Internet fun. (That’s probably the best incentive ever for getting an iPad.)
But then I found a solution perfect for me, the undisciplined interactive copywriter: Freedom. It’s a software that you download on your machine. You specify how many minutes (come on, go for it – hours) of freedom you want and then Freedom shuts down your Internet access – no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, no IM, no eBay. (Or tumblr, or Apartment Therapy, or Surfline.)
You’re alone with your own thoughts and you finally can get some work done.
Yes, you can access the Internet if you have too, but you’ll have to reboot your machine to do so. And yeah, that’s a pretty good deterrent for me.
Freedom is one of the best ways I’ve found to be more focused and mindful in my work.
How do you deal with digital distraction?