Freedom

Recommendations seem like an easy and fairly popular way of filling space, so I wanted to give a shout-out to the Freedom app that I started using this year. I think it was brought to my attention by a fair few people, but I think there's a good chance than many people reading this won't have heard of it.

The concept of freedom is it will physically block you from using features of your phone or laptop for a given period of time. It's pretty simple really, you can block websites or apps and for the scheduled period of time it will be physically impossible for you to use those apps until your time is done. Because I think it's important to support product creators, I actually pay money for this service. The reason this would be useful for productivity should be pretty obvious, so I thought I'd just share some feedback and tips.

At first I planned on just starting a session for an hour or so if I was getting distracted, but I've found that's wildly optimistic. Scheduled sessions, where I'm blocked from checking the news or opening game apps every weekday afternoon, for example, are much more effective. I also find that it's important to change up the schedule periodically, however. I might switch from afternoons to mornings, for example, or block alternating days in the future. You also have to update the website block lists periodically, because it's always possible to find a new way to sink into comfortable distractions over time, unless you're willing to block out the internet entirely (and I'm not). Some websites, like Facebook, I've actually taken off the blocklist because they don't really distract me and I sometimes need access for perfectly defensible reasons.

One of the most underrated part of the apps might be the new coffeehouse feature, where you can just play sounds from different coffeehouses in the world. I'm not sure if this is available on the free version, but I'm sure you can get similar soundscapes on Youtube and it's amazing how easy it is to work to that chatter.

Anyway, if you want to see more, I'm sure google will find it for you or go here.